


Behind the Scenes

by LittleMissV



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Explicit Language, F/M, Romance, Spoilers for 707’s route, Spoilers for Ray’s route, mention of character suicide, more tags to be added later, ray's route
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2019-10-21 20:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 40,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17649527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissV/pseuds/LittleMissV
Summary: One day, Seven gets an unexpected visit from a certain agent...But it's not Vanderwood.





	1. Agent Who?

Seven stared.

**ACCESS*DENIED%Error000100%00110Error%110010001Error.exe**  
**ACCESS*DENIED%Error000100%00110Error%110010001Error.exe**  
**ACCESS*DENIED%Error000100%00110Error%110010001Error.exe**

Through the fluorescent light flooding from the computer screen, this string of nonsense appeared. Only, it wasn’t nonsense. Not to Seven Zero Seven, a genius hacker whose life was spent sitting on his ass in front of these big monitors, slaving away in the works the agency dumped on him.

“ _Heh_ , easy peasy...” He confidently said, lips curling into a smirk as he typed a series of numbers, codes, and other computer gibberish. Nothing a simple person could ever hope to understand, but he was a pro. In fact, he felt almost insulted by how easy it was to crack through this firewall. The redhead had hoped better from a big-shot company, whose mainframe he just now effortlessly hacked into and accessed all the dirty, incriminating files they so stupidly kept in the system. _‘Don’t they ever learn?’_ One would think that, in the present age of technology, people would be more aware of the dangers lurking in the dark web.

Seven was no stranger to it. He had weaved through several nooks and crannies of the digital underworld, uncovering unsavory things about ordinary _and_ powerful people. He could take down giant corporations in a matter of seconds, just sitting there and typing away at his keyboard from his safe abode.

Not even half an hour had passed since, and he was about 45% done with the work. Stretching himself, he decided to take a break for a minute. A soft _ding_ sound reached his ears, and he immediately took out his phone to check the RFA messenger.

**1:15PM** , read the time on at the top of the screen. It was around this time that Vanderwood came to check on his progress – or lack thereof; the sandy haired guy did skip a couple days, though...

Or he was likely not coming by to avoid having to clean after Seven’s mess. _Again_.

He started texting in the chatroom:

707: T-T I’m lonely

707: Aaaand

707: My house is a mess lolol

Jaehee Kang: Perhaps you should clean it, then?

707: B-but

707: I have SOOOO much work!!! >_<

Zen: Why do you have so much work lol

707: Lolol I’m a slave to the work they give me! Can’t help I’m so good at what I do, I guess

Jaehee Kang: Who is ‘they’ anyway? What is your work, Luciel?

707: Hahaha

707: Secret~

Jaehee:

 

Jaehee: Then shouldn’t you just try to get it all done and be free of it?

707: My work is NEVER done lolol

Zen: lmao at least you get paid right?

707: Yep!

707: Gotta get that dough to buy more babes!!

Jaehee: ...babes? What are you talking about

707: My ★LIMITED EDITION★ cars, of course! My precious beauties!!! <3

Zen: Omg don’t refer to your cars as babes lol! Get a girlfriend for that

707: T-T I want a girlfriend

Zen: lol we all do, but we’re all single

Seven snorted. _'Ain’t that the truth.'_ But it was probably best, in his case. His job was dangerous and he couldn’t dare to bring an innocent girl into his chaotic mess. As long as he worked for that intelligence agency, he would never have a normal life. He was fine with it, if only that meant–

_**Gate: Access Granted** _

The front door AI's robotic voice spoke. It was probably Vanderwood, _finally_.

“Hey, Madam Vanderwood!” He called from his station, still playing around on his phone without looking up.

“Can you clean my place? _Pretty please_ ~? I got sooo much work to do still but it’s sooo dirty and I can’t!” He pleaded pathetically, yet at the same time having the most sheepish grin plastered on his face.

“....I’m not your damn maid, Agent Zero Seven. Just do the work.” The other man huffed as he walked over to Seven’s monitor station, arms crossed over his chest. “How far did you get?”

Seven hummed, spinning around in his chair. “Mmmmm I got about maybe, _possibly_ , 50% done?”

Vanderwood sighed, resisting the urge to facepalm. “What..? Just get it done already. I know you can do it faster than that, but lately you’ve been slacking off.”

The young agent gave a fake apologetic look as he rubbed the back of his head. “Thing is, I’m still kinda in mourning...a friend of mine died recently, ya know.”

Once again, the older man sighed. “Yes yes, I know that. But it’s been what, 5 months or something? Don’t you think it’s about time you start coming to terms with it?”

Seven sighed. Easier said than done. Vanderwood wasn’t wrong, though. While he was actually already healing from Rika’s sudden passing, he was a lot more worried about V. He’s barely been on the RFA messenger since, and was probably taking her death a lot harder than the rest of the members. Rika was his friend...but she was V’s fiancée and that probably made things a lot worse for him. When first hearing about her suicide, the redheaded hacker didn’t know what to say or do. He felt helpless.

“Alright alright, I’ll get it done.” He finally gave in, pouting a bit as he turned his chair around to face the computer monitors. A side-glance was cast at the other agent.

“Oh...can you still clean, though? Please? It would help my concentration a lot!”

Air was sucked in, very slowly. “... ** _fine_**.” Vanderwood caved, grumbling inaudible curses under his breath as he went about clearing all the empty bags of chips and soda cans.

“Ugh, I can’t believe you live like this...how are you even alive when you just eat junk food?” He questioned, quite seriously astounded at the young hacker’s ability to consume such foods and still be in as decent a health as he was.

Seven grinned as he started typing again. “They’re the key to my superpower! Honey Buddha Chips and PhD Pepper are the _perfect_ combo to get the smart juices flowing in my brain~”

“Ew, don’t describe it like that, weirdo...” Vanderwood shuddered, then resumed cleaning. The other snickered. It was tons of fun messing with his agent pal, _Mary Vanderwood 3rd_.

An hour later, the redhead finished his work entirely. Leaning back, he stretched his arms high and looked over at the man lounging on the couch, reading some kind of book.

“Hey Madam, I finished it!” Seven declared, shooting him a cheesy thumbs-up-grin-wink combo.

“Aren’t I great? Aren’t I **SUPER** fast? The agency is so lucky to have me~” He received an eye-roll from Vanderwood.

“Don’t be so arrogant–and stop calling me Madam...!” He huffed, getting up from his seat.

“So did you clean my–oh...you did already.” He said, only now taking notice of the completely visible floor, rid of empty chip bags, cans, tools and scattered clothing. A twitch to Vanderwood’s eye had Seven smiling nervously.

“Ehehe...I appreciate your help, Mr. Vanderwood!” He said to appease the not-so-happy-looking agent. Shaking his head, the older man adjusted the coat hanging over his shoulders and walked off to the washroom.

Seven let out a breath he just realized he was holding. “Dodged a bullet there...” He said, once sure that the other could not hear him. Taking the opportunity, he checked the chatroom logs of past convos, reading some passive-aggressive exchanges between Zen and Jumin, Jaehee reminding _Mr. Han_ that he had to attend a meeting the next day, and Yoosung being a little angst. Overall, pretty normal. Still no sign of V.

Vanderwood came back, clearing his throat to gain Seven’s attention. “Since you’re done with the work for the day, I’m gonna head off. You’ll probably get more later in the day or tomorrow...” He trailed off, seemingly thinking of something, then shaking his head and heading to the door. Seven blinked, but shrugged it off as he turned back to his monitors. Honestly, he was quite relieved he now had some free time from work. He did a quick spin in the chair, then stared up at the ceiling.

“What to do? Hmm…” Eyes closed, then opened again. _‘Guess I could do some updates on the RFA server.’_ He decided, grabbing his phone and getting right to it.

 

* * *

 

_Ding!_

Seven yawned, slowly raising his head from the desk. He felt oh so groggy, and a familiar stiffness was felt on his neck. He had fallen asleep at his computer desk. Again. No surprise though, he’s done that many times before.

Blindly grabbing for his phone, the redhead stared down at the time. **11:40AM**.

“Ugh...” He forced himself out of the chair and to the washroom. Cold water was splashed onto face to permanently dispel the sleepiness he felt. The last thing he remembered was chatting with some of the members before suddenly getting more work from the agency. Only one day had gone by since Vanderwood’s last visit, so only one day of free time before getting right back to dirty business.

Feeling–and hearing–his stomach growl, the redhead decided to forgo food in place of a nice hot shower. Clothes were discarded on the floor, and soon lukewarm water started beating onto his body. Boy, did it feel good. The faint aches he felt were being seen to, like a soothing massage. In that small time, he thought about V again and how he must be doing. _‘Should I try calling him..?’_ He debated. Since Rika’s death, Seven tried reaching out to his blue-haired friend a few times a week, but he seldom answered his calls.

Sighing, he washed himself quickly, scrubbing some shampoo over his messy head of hair before rinsing and turning the water off. A towel was reached for and wrapped around his waist, clothes were gathered from the ground and dumped in the hamper before he went into the bedroom. He put on a clean red shirt and a fresh pair of jeans, then sloppily dried his curly hair with the towel before putting that back in the bathroom and returning to the living room.

“Hungry hungry hungry~” He chanted, instantly going for his stash of Honey Buddha Chips and grabbing a bag to tear into. PhD Pepper was retrieved from the fridge, and he brought these things straight to his desk. The agency had given him more work than usual, which was a total bummer for Seven who was hoping to put in some time for his hobbies…what were his hobbies again?

Seven started typing away at his keyboard, occasionally taking a sip of his drink and blindly fishing into the bag for a tasty chip.

_**Gate: Access Granted** _

Vanderwood was here. Earlier than usual, but since he’s occasionally visited him late at night too there was nothing suspicious about it, right?

“Hey, Madam Vanderwood!” He habitually hollered, always forgetting ~~or maybe just not caring~~ that he hated being called that. “Why did the agency give me so much work this time? I’m dying here...and the house is a mess again, so can you pretty please clean it one more time, hmm?”

“Vanderwood's not coming today.”

…

…

…

Seven quickly spun his chair around to face the visitor–or was it intruder? Instead of Vanderwood standing in the middle of the room, a girl was. Why?

“Uh...who are you and how did you get in here?” How could she have gotten through the security system without the alarm sounding off? Unless she knew the password…

The newcomer smiled. “Vanderwood let me in! Before he had to take off, anyway. He’s got some other tasks to do so the agency sent me as his temporary replacement.” She explained, unceremoniously plopping down on his couch. “I’m agent Valkyrie, but you can call me Elle if you want.”

“Agent? Elle?” His brain went haywire. The agency sent her in place of Vanderwood? Why? Why couldn’t they just leave him be while the other was off doing whatever he needed to do? Did they not trust him?

_‘Hah.’_ What a dumb question…of course they didn’t. Seven Zero Seven was too good at what he did, of course they were being cautious, keeping an eye on him. But now that he was piecing it together and making sense of things, he was able to calm down some. The moment this Elle spoke, he felt his blood run cold and heart rate skyrocket. It sent him into an inward panic, thinking about how someone could’ve possibly broken into his top secret bunker only a few people knew about.

“Yup!” She verified, tilting her head to the side until she made eye contact with him.

“You’re cool with that, right? Or do you miss _Madam_ Vanderwood’s company that much?”

Obviously a teasing remark. Damn….that was a dangerous sign. A spunky agent girl in his house?!

Blinking, he finally broke into a grin and shook his head. “Nah! He’s always been a little iffy around me...maybe you’ll be different? Some say a change of scenery does you good.”

“So they say.” She turned her body and folded her arms over the top of the couch to rest her head on. “You got a ton of work then, huh? The agency tends to do that a lot, haha. It kinda sucks.”

Definitely! He related to that statement so much, it was almost scary. Was she able to read into him, by any chance? Did she have special mind-reading powers?? Just the thought of it gave him chills.

“Yep! Work me to the bone, they do. I’m a slave, doomed to answer their every beck and call~” He dramatized, causing the young lady to laugh. It sort of startled him a little, the sound of a girl’s laugh. He’s not heard it in a while. Not since Rika, in fact...it was nice, though.

“I feel ya there. All they want is ‘results, results, results’. Don’t matter if we’re tired or hungry or sleepy~”

Seven nodded in agreement. Oh boy, what was going on? Speaking so casually to someone he’d only met like, 3 minutes ago? And from the agency, no less! He’d be lying if he didn’t admit he was still suspicious of her. He’d have to be careful.

“Soooo,” He drawled, trying to be causal as he slowly returned to work. “What exactly do you do for the agency?”

“A little bit of this, a little bit of that.” Elle’s eyes darted around the room, as if taking in the state of his living quarters–which lacked a bit of cleanliness, to be honest.

“Even hacking?” Amber orbs shifted briefly to her.

“Not good at it, but I’ve dabbled a little.” The girl suddenly stood up from the couch and crossed over to where he was. Her approach was so quick and sudden that Seven jumped a little in place, eyes wide. She ascended the small steps, then settled for leaning against the frame door to his work station.

“You got anything to eat? Kinda starved since I haven’t eaten for…” She paused to count in her head. “18 hours, maybe?”

“ _18 hours?!_ How are you even standing right now?” He couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped. Even if he had starved for 3 days in the past, it was during a field assignment. Did she go through something similar? The way she was acting, that didn’t seem likely...he had been a hot mess after that mission.

“Uhmm, here! You can eat the rest of this.” He said, offering his half-empty bag of Honey Buddha Chips. Elle stared at the bag, then at him.

“You sure?” When Seven nodded, she took it. Reaching inside, she retrieved a single chip and ate it, tentatively.

“Hmmmm...mm? Mmm! This is pretty good, thanks!” Honestly? He’d think her weird if she didn’t, after all Honey Buddha Chips were the best. Also, he was glad she finally had something to eat as he didn’t want her suddenly collapsing of hunger in his home. That wouldn’t look good on him.

“By the way,” She began a minute after. “The boss wants you to finish that within the week.” So casually stated, Seven still choked with the PhD Pepper he’d been drinking just then.

“W– ***cough*** What?! ***cough***!!” Blinking, the girl reached over and gave a few hard pats to his back. Seven’s body lurched forward a bit when she did, gripping the edge of his desk to ground himself as he finally calmed down.

“You good?” She checked.

“Yeah yeah, but...why within the week all of a sudden?” He had to know. Elle hummed in thought.

“How should l put it? This kind of work needs to be a little more expedited. Know what I mean?” So basically, the faster the better. He got that. Still, such a pain...

He gave a long, drawn out sigh as if to openly express his displeasure. The girl shot him a tentative grin.

“Don’t like having deadlines, do ya? Well think about it this way, the faster you get this done the sooner you’ll get money in your pocket to buy stuff!” Such an excited declaration had him blinking at her, then laughing. What a quirky agent she was turning out to be. He didn’t mind that. Not at all. In fact...

“More money for my precious babes, yahoo!!” He fist-pumped the air. Now it was Elle’s turn to blink at him.

“Huh? Babes? You a womanizer or something?” The very thought was ridiculous to Seven, but he guessed anyone would’ve taken his statement in a similar way. He decided to have a little fun with it.

“Oh yah. I like to buy them all sorts of little accessories...they’re all so precious to me they deserve the best, you know? All my beauts, sittin’ nice and pretty in the garage! I treat them real nice.” He winked playfully. Elle stared for a solid 10 seconds before it dawned on her and she snorted a laugh.

“Oooh good one, you had me for a sec!” Seven was glad the lady got his kind of humor, instead of being super annoyed by it like _some agents_.

Maybe Vanderwood’s temporary leave of absence wouldn’t be so bad; this girl seemed a lot more lax and carefree than the older gentleman. But he knew, as well as anyone else in this dangerous line of work, that people often wore disguises...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't written a fic in YEARS and I feel super rusty, but since getting into Mystic Messenger I've thought about giving this a shot again...and it's my first work in AO3 too! I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself, so for now this is a loose story with no strings attached. Title is a work in progress since I suck at coming up with clever stuff :D
> 
> This first starts prior to the ACTUAL MC's appearance in the chatroom, and it will mostly follow Ray's Route 'behind the scenes.' Might have a few elements from other routes too, depending on how much I mix them up, lol. Please leave comments & kudos! :)
> 
> PS: Please forgive any misspellings/typos. I try to proofread my stuff but sometimes I miss some T-T


	2. What's in the brown bag?

_Tap._

_Tap._

_Tap. Tap._

_Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap._

 

Seven stared at the monitor, his finger constantly tapping against the mouse as he debated the best way to access information without being found out by the other side. While that big-shot company hack had been easy breezy, this one was proving a little more challenging. Admittedly, it was a great change of pace, having his hacker smarts tested, keeping him alert. Besides, Elle said the boss needed it done soon and there was no room for a lot of procrastination.

Speaking of, it’s been two days since he first met the quirky–still suspicious–agent who was standing in for his older, more boring agent partner. While Vanderwood would’ve made periodic check-ups on him, she had yet to make a second appearance. Today was the day before the deadline to get this work done and turned in to the agency. Wasn’t she supposed to keep an eye on him? Make sure he was doing what he was supposed to do?

He would’ve called her irresponsible, but who was he to complain? He’d much rather _not_ have someone breathing down on his neck, hollering to get shit done as quickly as possible. Surely this was a blessing, but... _why_ hasn’t she shown up yet?

Come to think of it, she left his bunker only 3 hours after she got there. So abrupt it was, that he forgot to tell her about the fact that the gate password changed at midnight. Was that it? Was she not coming because she didn’t know how to get in? He shook his head. No. She looked smarter than that. There was still a standard doorbell she could try, or even knocking would do. Vanderwood had to use that a few times himself, so Elle would’ve known to do the same, right?

It was strange, as he’s only known the girl a short breath of a moment, but in her absence he found himself wondering more and more about her role in the agency. Did he have time to wonder about that stuff? Definitely not. But he did it anyway. Whenever curiosity gripped Seven, it was hard for him to shake it so easily. He was the kind of person who needed to figure things out, to a certain extent.

 _‘Wouldn’t hurt to do a little research on Miss Agent Valkyrie, would it?’_ He considered, dragging his eyes across the string of codes displayed in bright neon green. Decidedly, the hacker opened up a program to decipher the codes while he used another monitor to start info-gathering on her. The best way to do it was go straight to the dark web; as she was an agent, there was no bullshitting around with normal search engines. He started out inserting some standard stats about the girl, such as approximate height, physical description, the names ‘Valkyrie’ and ‘Elle,’ which he suspected were mere aliases, and some minor characteristics he managed to notice during her stay.

Nothing.

Usually, when Seven ran a background check on someone, he could find at least one piece of information about them in the first hour or so. But 4 hours straight he searched, and there was absolutely _nothing_ on this girl...least not with the small intel he had. It was as if she didn’t exist in the world, which very well could be possible provided someone erased all personal information of her. Wiped out completely. Was she a ghost, then? There was such a thing as a ghost agent, right? Action/Spy films had those themes going all the time! Could this be a real-life instance of that? He honestly didn’t know whether to be concerned or excited.

“Come on, digital underworld...there’s gotta be something–– _anything_.” A sudden beep startled the redhead, who glanced over to the other monitor. The program had finished decoding. Looking back to the present search he was making, he bit his lip.

“Well, might as well...” He muttered dejectedly, shifting his chair closer and cranking up his skills on the keyboard. She was a mystery he’d like to crack, but for now he had work to finish.

 

* * *

_Ding Dong!_

Fingers froze mid type. Seven turned his head in the gate’s direction. It was well past 10 at night. Could it be her...? Scrambling up, he went to find out. Stood in front of the steel door, the redhead slowly opened it.

“Heya!” Elle greeted. Seven quickly stepped aside as she walked right in.

“How you been?” The girl asked, twirling around to face him as he slowly shut the door.

“Uhh, fine?” He answered, bewildered for some reason. He expected she’d show up eventually, only her sudden appearance was, well...unexpected. Or maybe it was the sight of her with a lollipop in her mouth and a brown bag in hand that caught him off guard. “What’s that you got there?”

Elle looked down at the bag. “This? I’ll show it to you once I know you’ve got your work done. Did you?”

“Ah...not yet, hehe...” He confessed, awkwardly grinning while rubbing his neck. He thought he’d get a lecture out of her, as Vanderwood most always did, but instead she chuckled.

“Guess you’ll have to find out later, then~”

 

Huh.

 

Oddly enough, that teasing remark gave way to a glint of determination in his eyes. He wanted to know what was in that brown bag. _So bad_. Curiosity really was a pain in the ass sometimes.

“I’ll get it done now!” He suddenly declared, shooting off to his work station. He could hear Elle’s laugh in the distance as he situated himself in front of the monitors and typed away.

The girl found her way back to the living room and, like the first day, invited herself to sit on the couch while he worked.

“Hey, Elle?” He called in the middle.

“Hey, Seven?” She replied, in the same manner of speech. It made his lips curl up.

“Can’t you give me a hint of what’s in the bag? _Pretty please~_?”  It was an attempt to draw out of her some kind of info that would briefly stop his wonderings. What was it? Oh, it was _killing_ him!

“ _No spoilers~_ ” She sung out, making him sigh with a pout. If this was some sort of tactic she was using, it was a damn good one.

“So mean...” But his fingers worked even harder now.

It came to be that two hours later, Seven Zero Seven had successfully finished the task. Living up to his infamy, he had cracked all the codes and collected all the necessary data. Not wasting any time, he sent the files to the agency and quickly turned his chair around to face Elle.

“It’s done!” He felt triumphant, and the reward for all his hard work was just a few feet away. Seven couldn’t believe how excited he was to find out what was in the bag.

“Oh? The come on down and claim your prize, sir!” Elle proclaimed, as if she were a game show host. Eagerly he got up to join her on the couch, eyes sparkling with impatient wonder.

“Are you ready to find out what’s inside this magical brown bag?” She asked him, in a dramatically misplaced tone of seriousness to a ridiculous moment. He bobbed his head furiously, eyes growing as she reached inside. Inch by inch, she began to retract her hand, dragging the reveal in a most painful process. Hands clamped onto his knees as he leaned forward ever so slightly.

“One...” His heart raced.

 

“Two...” Sweat rolled down his face.

 

“...Three!”

 

...

 

...

 

_What?_

Such build-up turned out to be depressingly anticlimactic....for what she took from the bag was nothing more than a little kitty cat keychain. It was cute and yellow, but–“What the hell?”

At first he blushed, not realizing he had vocalized his thought, but so disappointed he was that he now openly groaned and slunk himself back on the couch.

“Eh? You don’t like?” Elle asked, dumbfounded by that kind of reaction and she stared down at the bright keychain. “I saw it in a claw machine at the mall and thought it looked your style. I spent some pretty pennies getting it, too…”

“...did you now?” Okay, that was kind of sweet, he had to admit.

“Mhm! But if you don’t want it, then...” As she spoke, Elle lowered the fluffy keychain back in the bag.

“Wait wait–!“ He suddenly snatched it from her, bringing the kitty cat up to his face for closer inspection. It was basically an oversized head of a yellow cat with three brown stripes on the head, a tiny pink nose and mouth, and _very_ big blue eyes. It really was cute, even reminded him a bit of Elizabeth the 3rd.

“Okay, I’ll keep it since you went through the trouble to get it.” He decided with a nod.

“Really? Yay!” She cheered, face bright with a wide grin that sent a slight tickle to his heart.

He paused. _‘No no. Don’t go there. Don’t even_ go _there.’_

“Oh, I also got these.” Elle said, bringing him out of his thoughts as she took out a small box of lollipops, probably the same kind presently in her mouth.

“You got a sweet tooth, then?” He inquired, squishing the fluffy kitty cat’s cheeks between his thumb and index finger.

“You could say that, yeah.” She confirmed, slouching back again as she took the lollipop out of her mouth to inspect. She was halfway to the core of it. The act caught his attention and he stared, almost too intently.

“You wanna watch a movie or something?”

“Huh?” He almost thought he heard it wrong. “Like a d-date?!” He squeaked, eyes wide.

“No, silly beans~ I meant on TV!”

Heat rushed to his face. Oh, what an outburst! How embarrassing was that? He tried to recover by laughing really loud, attempting to pass off as a joke.

“I knew that! I was just messing~” Luckily Elle bought the cover-up, since she snickered and reached for the remote next.

As she turned around to browse the channels, Seven took this opportunity to make a subtle observation. This girl had a boldness to her that was both intriguing and alarming. She wasn’t your run-of-the-mill agent, that much was certain. He wasn’t either.

The redhead recalled Vanderwood talking about what this line of work meant for people like them. One step in the wrong direction, one little joke told wrong, could end their lives in an instant. He shuddered to think that day would come...

But this Elle...what was she involved with? Or better question... _why_ was she involved at all?

“Ooh, this looks good!” Said girl declared, setting the remote down as she focused her attention on the Korean Drama unraveling on the plasma screen. Seven directed his attention to it, momentarily forgetting about his mental analysis on Elle.

* * *

Half way into the show, two lead guys had fought over the main girl, who was more in love with the cool-tough guy who barely gave her attention though he secretly liked her. Meanwhile, the other guy who openly expressed his fondness for the girl got friend-zoned super hard. He felt himself oddly engaged in it. At the end of the episode, Elle was sniffling.

“Oppa _whyyyy_ ~” She whined, wiping at her eyes. Seven nodded solemnly, gently patting her back as if to console her.

“ _Shhh_ it’s okay, _shhhh~_ ” Anyone seeing them would think their behavior silly, but to Seven? Funny-guy-always-joking-around Seven? It felt totally normal. Once she calmed down a bit, Elle stood up.

“Welp! Gotta go now, cya later!”

And just like that, she was gone. Seven sat there, blinking for the longest time. The thing that managed to break his state was a soft _ding_ from his phone. He retrieved it from his pocket and stared at the text message received.

CallerID8989340834: Nice hanging with ya! Take good care of Mr. Kittycat!

CallerID8989340834: :3

CallerID8989340834: ~Elle

 

“...Wait, when did she get my number?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let know how I'm doing by leaving a comment & kudos! :)


	3. Field Assignment! Pt. 1

“Seven!!!” Vanderwood hollered, drifting his car to line with the street curb. Just then, a door burst open and out came Seven. Eye wide, he quickly bolted to the car and practically threw himself in. Vanderwood hit the gas and took off at high speed, leaving a trail of smoke behind.

“ _Phew_! That was a close one, huh?” Seven said, grinning widely despite his flushed face. His heart was still racing from all the adrenaline that went down moments ago.

“What part of being quick did you not get? Are you trying to get us killed?!” He barked, angrily pulling out his earpiece and throwing it to the back. The redhead sucked in some air, shrinking comically in his seat as he got his head bitten off by the agent.

“Woah woah woah….no need to get so mad, Madam – _Errr_ – Mr. Vanderwood!” He squeaked when man gave him the meanest glare he’d ever seen.

 Vanderwood scoffed. “Damn, this is beyond frustrating…you’re so frustrating!” Trying to calm down, the agent took a deep drag of the cig in his mouth, puffing the smoke out the window as he sped through a yellow light. He did a couple turns at random streets before slowing down some.

“If you hadn’t taken so long, you wouldn’t have been caught… just what happened in there?”

“Well…” Seven trailed off.

* * *

 

***4 hours earlier***

“I’m so bored…so bored…so so _soooo_ booooored~” Seven spun around in his chair, glazed eyes staring up at the ceiling. For the past three and a half days he’s had nothing to do, and though he usually would call that a gift from God, he now had too much free time on his hands. Already he messed around with the RFA, invented about a dozen little gadgets with useless commands, and texted Elle for a little bit.

What caught his attention was the computer monitor making a sudden beeping noise. He straightened up and moved for a closer look; it was the search system he had set up to try to find information on the girl. No results.

“Still nothing…” The ingenious hacker found himself often scratching his head, wondering how he couldn’t find a single clue about Elle, but more than anything his curiosity spiked because of that.

“Who are you, Agent Valkyrie?” Grabbing his PhD Pepper, he took a long sip. He _could_ , theoretically, access city surveillance and see if he caught sight of her anywhere, but that would mean watching video feeds for endless hours. It was simply time and focus he did not have, what with the agency and all. Plus, it sounded borderline creepy.

 _‘Probably not a good idea to go poking around an agent’s private life, anyway.’_ He thought for the hundredth time. If someone went snooping around his life? Seven didn’t want anyone caught up in what he did, or worse…if they found out about his past somehow, it could risk everything he’s tried so hard to preserve... _that person_ had to stay safe, and the only way to make that happen was to keep them away from the crooked life he chose…to lead a happy life.

Seven shook his head, trying to keep painful memories from flooding his mind. He took another sip then stood up, walking to the middle of the living room. The floor was littered with junk, random tools and pieces of metal lay scattered. It was like a hazardous course one had to navigate with caution, lest they trip or step on something that would hurt their foot.

 _‘This needs cleaning. When is Madam Vanderwood gonna come around?’_ As soon as he thought that, front gate activated.

**_Gate: Access Granted_ **

Agent Vanderwood stepped into view, muttering something under his breath before pausing to stare at the mess that was Seven’s house.

“Oh god, not again...” He groaned.

“Oh hey, ma’am! Just in time too, I was about to call and ask if you could–” But the redhead was cut off.

“No. You are **not** making me clean up your mess again. I’ve told you many times I’m not your damn maid!”

“Aww…” Shot down, the young agent hung his head.

Vanderwood’s sour mood was more than apparent, and sure he was usually the cause of it, but this had to be a record-breaking time.

“Anyway,” The sand-haired level his voice. “Agent Zero Seven, we have a field assignment from the boss.” Ah…so that’s why he seemed especially moody today.

“Why all of a sudden?” Seven’s bewildered expression received a shrug.

“Who knows? I don’t like it anymore than you do, but…” Vanderwood pinched his nose bridge, sighing. “It’s been given top priority and we have to do it.”

 _Ugh_ , work. How he wished he could go back to complaining about how bored he was.

“So, when do we leave?” He asked, fingers fiddling with his headphone wire.

“As soon as you get your tech stuff ready,” He said. “Also, and I can’t believe I’m saying this…bring one of your ridiculous disguises. We’re headed to a nightclub and we can’t have someone recognizing you.” A knowing look was cast. Seven knew exactly what he meant.

Vanderwood was the only one in the agency who knew about Seven’s affiliation with the RFA. Being his partner, he kept it a secret for the young hacker’s sake, but he never missed the opportunity to hold it over his head too. Still, he couldn’t recall any of the members frequenting nightclubs, so the likelihood of bumping into one was small.

Seven cleared his throat. “I resent that statement, Madam. They’re not ridiculous but efficient…and _so_ pretty!” His wide grin was ill-received by the older man who groaned yet again.

“Just get ready…and don’t call me Madam!”

10 minutes was all it took for Seven Zero Seven to gather his equipment and shove it in a bag along with a disguise outfit. A nightclub! This was refreshingly new and fun, but he didn’t say that aloud in fear of getting a lecture from his grumpy partner. The two agents headed down to the garage where Vanderwood parked his car; it was a black 2015 Kia Cadenza. It looked slick and cool, but also discreet and easy to hide…unlike his limited edition models that practically screamed, **LOOK AT ME.**

 _‘But they’re good investment!’_ He thought, quite confident. In the long-run they’d accumulate more value, he was sure of it.

“It’s about a 1 hour drive to get there, so don’t bug me too much while I’m behind the wheel.” Vanderwood was quick to say as they got inside.

Seven nodded, fastening his seat belt. “But of course! I’ll just be sitting here, minding my own business like a good boy~” He even drew his headphones up ad if to block the outside world by listening to music. Vanderwood was more than fine with that. Turning on the ignition, he drove out of the lot.

Being in the passenger seat, Seven got bored fast, so he started fooling around on his phone. He checked the RFA past logs to see what he missed, then trolled a bit with Jumin about his cat. It was fun messing with the corporate heir. Oh, his beloved Elle—

 

Wait a minute.

 

 _‘Did I just type_ Elle _? Not Elly?’_ He checked it again, and sure enough he had. Yoosung even asked if it was a typo, which he quickly said it was. It was…wasn’t it? He groaned. Those two names were practically the same, damnit!

“Ugh, you’re so stupid…”

“What was that?” Having heard him, Vanderwood instantly reacted thinking he was talking to him. Seven’s eyes widened and he frantically shook his head, making and X with his arms.

“Not you, not you!! I wasn’t talking to you, I swear!” Such a look he got from the older agent that anime tears dramatically gushed out of his eyes; Vanderwood thought he looked ridiculous.

“…Don’t just openly say stuff like that, you’re so weird.” The man scoffed, but much to the young hacker’s relief he decided to overlook it.

Sighing, the redhead decided to ask something useful for a change. “So what are we doing in this club?”

“Boss said the owner has some video evidence on one of our big clients, what a shocker…” Seven heard a hint of sarcasm. “He wants you to get in, hack into the club’s main system, get the files, and get out. Understood?”

“Yep!” Seven’s grin wasn’t at all convincing to the other.

“I mean it, Zero Seven. Don’t stick around that place any more than you have to. Just find your way in, do the job, and get the hell out. I’ll be outside as the lookout. Don’t take too long or I’m leaving you.” An empty threat, as well as he knew, for Vanderwood was his partner and he couldn’t complete this job without Seven’s skills.

“Here.” Said the man, blindly reaching inside the middle compartment to take out an earpiece. He handed it over to Seven. “Just in case you do get in trouble and need to holler at me to save your ass.”

“Aww, you care~” The redhead grinned wider which only made the other agent roll his eyes.

“Don’t be weird!”

An hour elapsed when they finally reached the club location. Vanderwood pulled into an alleyway, just a few yards from the establishment.

“Get disguised and get going.” He instructed the younger man.

“Okie!” It took Seven 5 minutes to put on a long black hair wig, a pair of feminine eyeglasses, and a loose but stylish black dress.

“How do I look, oppa~?” Seven asked, trying on the girliest voice he could muster. It came out quite high pitched, making the other agent cringe and turn around to look.

“For the love of…” The sight of him had Vanderwood sighing deep. But as much as he hated to admit, Seven’s disguises were quite convincing to the ordinary bystander. It allowed the redhead more flexibility to do onsite jobs without getting recognized, because if he did? Well, he’d be having new identities for the rest of his life.

“You’re not gonna compliment me? That’s so ungentleman-like…” Seven did pokey-pokey with his index fingers, trying to act cute but it only ticked off the other.

“Just go do the damn job! Ugh, I need a smoke...” Vanderwood grumbled, shoving a hand in his pant pocket to retrieve a pack and lighter. Seven was about to tell him how bad that habit was…then again, he wasn’t the best example, that with having chips and soda practically every meal. Shrugging, he lastly adjusted the bag strapped around his midriff; it was hidden underneath the loose-fitting dress he wore. Seven walked off.

The hacker felt it best to go through the main entrance. It made him seem less suspicious and more like a normal girl trying to have a good time at a club. About 20 minutes he waited since there was a decent line when he got there, but now he was getting impatient. Trying to score brownie points, he winked at the bouncer. He blushed, then cleared his throat and motioned Seven to move up along with a few other girls who he saw trying to get the man’s attention for that same reason.

 _‘Men, so naïve.’_ He ironically thought, going inside. Instantly, he was hit with a wave of loud EDM music and bright strobe lights. All around people were drinking and dancing, having a jolly good time. He did a little shimmy dance as he blended himself into the crowd. At the same time, Seven tried moving away from the blaring speakers.

“ _Are you in yet? I hear terrible loud music._ ” Vanderwood’s voice sounded from the earpiece he wore, hidden by long strands of fake black hair.

“Yep, totally! So fun here!” He shouted, but his girly voice had such terrible pitch still that some of the women nearby winced and moved away. Shrugging, he shuffled along, all the while looking for that **‘DO NOT ENTER’** kind of access. Having mapped the layout of the club in the car, he had a pretty good idea where it might be. He just needed to get there –

“Come here often~?” Someone spoke from behind, sending chills down his spine. What spooked him was the fact that he recognized the voice. Spinning around, he came face to face with…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments and kudos, guys *-*! Please continue to support this humble fanfic with your love! <3


	4. Field Assignment! Pt. 2

“Heya, Mr. kittycat!” Said Elle with a wide grin.

Seven stood there, dumbfounded. Was it really her?  Her voice sounded right and the eye color was the same but…the hairstyle was different; instead of being the usual long, caramel blond hair, it was blue and cropped short like a bob. A fake wig…just like him!

“Wha – who are you talking about, ahaha!” Trying recover, his male voice accidentally gave way and he froze.

“Aw, relax hun!” She assured, leaning close to his ear, “I’m on assignment too.”

“ _What’s going on?_ ” He heard his partner ask on the other end.

“Umm, just a sec.” Turning away, he pushed a button on the earpiece and said, “Talk to you in a bit, Madam Vanderwood!”

“ _What? Seven, wait–!_ ”

Seven muted it and turned back. “How did you know?” He curiously asked.

“Oh please, I’ve seen and done many disguises in my day. I could smell you from a mile away~” Now that was a dangerous thing to hear. Should he be worried? He should, right? But that got him thinking about how that might be the reason he’s been having a hard time finding stuff on her…so she wore disguises too, eh?

“Uhh, so what’s your assignment?” He cleared his throat. As the beat got louder, he didn’t feel as worried about someone picking up on his true voice.

“Oh nothing much, just waiting ‘round for some shady guy so we can make an exchange.” She waved it off like it was no biggie.

“And you’re here with your partner?” Was his next question, briefly looking around as if he could spot them, which was ridiculous because he had no idea what they looked like in the first place.

“M’yep! He gettin’ a drink.” She thumbed back to the bar, where he saw several people with drinks on hand, and some trying to flag down the bartender. Seven’s eyes squinted, looking at each and every one of the guys.

“Is it the blond haired dude with the nose piercing?” He tried to guess, and she giggled.

“No spoilers~ we’re undercover, ‘member? You don’t see me asking ‘bout where youse partner is and whatchyu doing~”

Seven blinked. He just now realized there was a bit of a slur to Elle’s words…was she drunk??

“Are you…should you be drinking on the job, missy?” He playfully called her out. Elle giggled more and a finger went to her lips.

“Shhhh~…I ain’t drunk, I just tispy....why? Is someone gon’ get me in twubble~?” She now mixed baby speech into her slur, which to Seven was a funny thing to hear. He had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing in her face.

“O-Okay then. Anyway I better get going now so –“ But she suddenly moved her face close to his.

“Do me a favor, pretty please? I gots to bathroom. I dunno where is…take me?” Her sentences were getting shorter and simpler. He blinked, trying to ignore the fact that his face was warming up at their close proximity.

“W-What? I can’t I’m not a…” A _girl_ …but he was dressed as one so _technically_ ….?

“Oh pssshhh, jus leave me at th’door, silly kitty!” Elle pinched his cheek and laughed when he got red.

 _‘Cool it down, Seven!’_ He mentally coaxed, taking a deep breath and nodding. Looking around for the restroom sign, he saw it at the other end of the room and gently grabbed her arm to guide her there. This girl…on duty and drunk? Wouldn’t she face consequences from their higher ups? He suddenly felt bad…

“We’re here.” He told her, using a softer voice now as the music didn’t blare awfully loud in that area. “You can go by yourself, right?”

“Yep! Thanks, kittycat.” Pecking his cheek, Elle stumbled into the women’s restroom, leaving Seven standing there with mouth gaping.

Did that just happen? He touched his cheek. There was a slight lingering feeling from where she placed her lips. They were soft…

 _‘Oh no..no no no no no.’_ Several times he shook his head, trying to rid himself of thoughts he shouldn’t be having – thoughts he **couldn’t** have.

With heart racing, the redhead was about to leave when, at the corner of his eye, he saw it: ‘ **DO NOT ENTER – Authorized Personnel Only**.’

 _‘Bingo!’_ A perfect distraction to his other distraction, Seven nearly forgot he had a job to do. Without realizing, Elle led him exactly where he needed to go. He briefly looked around, checking out the ceilings mainly but not finding any surveillance cameras in that area. Good. Poor judgment on the owner’s part, but it made things way easier for him if he didn’t get caught on video.

Next, he pretended to drunk-wobble and ‘stumble’ into the hallway the sign lead to. He looked around again. No one noticed. Turning, there was a gray door at the end of the hall. As he approached, Seven kept checking over his shoulder in case anyone popped up. Surveying the door, he saw no light source shinning underneath, and deduced the room was vacant.

 _‘Alright, Seven. Just get in, do your thing, and get out.’_ He repeated like a mantra. Turning the handle, he slowly pushed the doorframe.

Empty. Not wasting time, he got in quick and shut the door behind. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to darkness, but when they did he noticed it was the right room. Coming up to the desk, there were two computer monitors: one displayed several camera feeds of the club, and the other had a lock screen showing the club’s logo. Seven reached under his dress and unhooked his bag strap, setting it on the ground. From inside he took out his tech gadgets: a passcode decryptor, tablet, and USB drive.

First, he connected the decryptor into the port and set it up to decipher the PC’s password. Next, he accessed his tablet and typed in some codes in a back server app. Keeping an eye on the camera feeds, he paid special attention to the one recording closest to his present location. In less than two minutes the decryptor matched the password, giving Seven access to the PC.

“Alright, let’s get crackin’.” The redhead set his fingers to work, opening a CMD prompt pop up and typing out a string of codes. Eyes every so often shifted to the feeds; he had to keep an eye out for anyone coming that way. Sure enough, 10 minutes into accessing all relevant files, it happened…

“Shit.” The feed showed two men approaching the hall. One looked like a he could be the manager of the club, while the other looked the part of a buff bouncer or bodyguard. Worst part? The file sizes were large and it made the transfer program super slow, the green bar displayed was only halfway done. Seven ran the risk of being found out.

 _‘Shit shit shit! What do I do?’_ His brain tried coming up with every possible way to avoid getting caught, but he could hear their voices just a few feet away now. Damn. He looked around the room, but it was so small there wasn’t much room for hiding. He looked at the screen.

**_‘Time remaining: 2 minutes, 35 seconds’_ **

He could already see their approaching shadows through the crack below. He wouldn’t make it.

**_‘Time remaining: 1 minute, 55 seconds’_ **

Ducking under the desk, he shut his eyes and prayed to God for some miracle. The doorknob was twisted…

A sharp scream made Seven jump. It must’ve startled the other men too, because next thing he knew they were rushing off. Hearing their retreating footsteps, he waited a minute before taking a gander at the monitor screen.

**_‘File Transferring Complete’_ **

Hell yeah! He thanked whoever gave that bloody scream and started frantically pulling himself out of the servers and programs and taking out whatever he had hooked up.

Unmuting the earpiece, he quietly hissed, “Vanderwood!”

“ _Finally! What the hell, Seven!!”_ Before the agent had a chance to lay it on him, the redhead cut in.

“I got the files, but I almost got caught! Someone screamed and they left to check it out I think, but I don’t know how much time I have.” He could hear the older agent sucking in a breath when he told him that.

“ _Then what are you waiting for? Get the hell out, **now**_!” No arguments there. After planting a virus erasing all traces of his hacking, Seven shoved his things in the bag and stood up. Slipping the strap to his shoulder, he opened the door slightly to check that the coast was clear. Once it was, he wasted no time and booked it. He got as far as the end of the hall, just rounding the corner.

“Hey!” Someone shouted. He looked back and froze; it was the manager-looking dude from the feed!

_‘Damnit.’_

“What were you doing there, miss? That hall isn’t open to the public.” He stated, pointing to the sign above and eyeing Seven suspiciously. Blinking, the redhead pretended to read the sign as if for the first time. Then suddenly he loosened out a girly – and highly pitched – laugh.

“Silly me, that wasn’t the bathroom! Think I had too many martinis and took the wrong turn, hee hee~” Seven started walking past him. “Sorry mister, I’ll go now!”

But the strap of his bag was gripped, making the agent halt. “Eh?”

“What’s in the bag, miss?” The manager asked, tugging at it.

“Just personal stuff, mister!” He answered, also tugging to pry it from him. The manager’s grip tightened.

“Oh yeah? Like what, hm?” What a persistent guy, Seven thought.

“You know, my cell, makeup… _girl things_?” He listed, but the man wasn’t buying it.

“Let me see the bag, miss.”

“Why?”

“I won’t ask again.” Damn. Once again in a tight spot. This time, he seriously doubted a second scream would come from the heavens to save his ass. Seven had to improvise…

“O-Okay but…can I just say something first?” The manager raised a brow.

“What?”

“Your shoelace is undone.” Confused, he looked down at his feet. That’s when the agent moved in and took a knee to his gut, knocking the wind out of him as he doubled over. The grip on the strap loosened and the agent ripped it away, taking off.

“S-Security!!!” Seven heard him cry. Not long after, two buff guys were after him.

“Stop right there!” Like hell he would! Seven just kept running, flat out shoving past the crowd of people dancing on the floor.

“Vanderwood, I need your help!!” He shrieked, hopefully loud enough to be heard through the deafening club music. “They’re after me!”

“ _I heard! Can you get to the back?_ ” The agent asked.

The back? Seven looked around, a hard thing to do when you were trying to dodge two big-ass guys coming after you. Eyes moving wildly around, he suddenly spotted Elle again. She was looking right at him, smiling.

He stood there now, frozen. She suddenly started pointing one way, which made him look in that direction. And then he saw…the exit sign!

“Ok I’m almost out!” He warned the older agent. Taking a quick peek back, he saw the security guys pushing past the sea of people standing between them. One final look was cast at her girl before he sprinted away. He had to take several turns before seeing the exit door ahead.

 _‘Come on!’_ Reaching out, he gripped the handle and flung the door open, stumbling out into the night air.

* * *

  ***Present***

“Unbelievable,” Vanderwood took another drag of his cig. “And you said agent Valkyrie was there?”

“Yeah,” Seven confirmed. “She had a disguise and all, but it was her alright…” He decided not to mention her drunken state, not wanting his partner to suddenly slip up when talking to their boss and getting her in trouble. It wasn’t their business, anyway.

“By the way, I forgot to ask...what kind of job had you away for a week that the agency had to send her over in your place?” He’d totally forgotten to question his partner about it. Elle was so nice, maybe that’s what distracted him for his earlier suspicions.

“I don’t think you really want to know the nature of the job, Seven…but to be honest I had no idea they’d send _her_ in my place.” He said.

“Hmm….come to think of it, don’t you find it too much of a coincidence? Her and her partner being at the same nightclub on the same night we’re supposed to steal those files?” He sure as hell wasn’t expecting to bump into her. It threw him off.

At first, Vanderwood didn’t say anything. His eyes looked straight ahead but he had a contemplative look on his face. He slowed to a stop when reaching a red light.

“Seven,” The older agent turned to the younger. “There’s something odd with your account.”

The redhead tilted is head, confused. “What do you mean?”

“For one, it’s unusual for a pair of agents to be on assignment at the same location, unless it’s a joint effort to a bigger operation.” The redhead thought about it. Now that he said that, it made sense, but…

“But it’s not unheard of, right? I mean, that nightclub is popular…and I doubt we’re the first to handle a crappy mission in a place like that.” For one reason or another, the majority of their high profile clients liked conducting shady business in clubs and other nightlife places. Maybe it was a trend among crooked people?

“I guess not, but the other part that’s bugging me is…”

“What? What is it?” Seven urged the other man to continue.

“Agent Valkyrie, or Elle as she’s called sometimes….”

“What about her?” The way he said that made Seven feel a little uneasy.

“As far as I know, she’s never had a partner.”

...

Seven went silent.

Light turning green, Vanderwood drove off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please keep up the support! <3


	5. Curiouser and Curiouser

Seven couldn’t get a hold of Elle for a few days after their club encounter. Texts were sent, but she wasn’t responding. Whenever they met, countless questions raised in his head with no means to an answer. The web search he kept running wasn’t yielding a single clue about her. At one point he even broadened his range to include every continent of the world, which was an awful idea because even though some things _did_ start popping up, none of it had any concrete information that seemed to match her. Not yet anyway. It was a long-ass process.

As if doing background check wasn’t enough, the redhead reached next level stalker by trying to track her phone, but the signal kept bouncing from one place to another. It was as if the device had been purposely tampered with, so no one would find her true location.

 _‘Smart.’_ He commended, but still annoyed about it. If the cyber world wasn’t giving him what he wanted, Seven had to do the next best thing: straight up bug Vanderwood and oh, how he bugged him. Firing question after question, it was no wonder the agent looked aggravated.

“How old is she?”

“I don’t know, close to your age I guess.”

“When did she join the agency?”

“Don’t know.”

“Does she dye her hair? Is it her real hair or a wig?”

“…How would I know that?”

“What’s her favorite color? Favorite food?”

“Uhh…”

“Does she have a cat or a dog or a bird or another kind of pet?”

“…”

“IS SHE **SUPER-SPY**?”

“Enough! She’s an agent like you and me, and has duties of her own.” The immature side of him snickered at ‘duties’ and the other rolled his eyes.

“Look, being curious and asking questions about who she is and what she does will only land you in trouble, you know that. Now get back to work.” He heatedly voiced, making Seven pout before doing just that. It was so frustrating! He knew he shouldn’t ask things, just as he wouldn’t want any of the RFA members questioning what he did. It was too dangerous...

 _‘But why lie about having a partner?_ ’ He kept going back to that. As trivial as it seemed, it bugged the hell of Seven. She knew he had Vanderwood for a partner, so…why couldn’t she just be honest and say she didn’t have one?

Maybe Vanderwood was wrong. Maybe she just recently got one and he just didn’t get the memo. Not like all the agents communicated with one another, they had their own shit to deal with. Seven was just a hacker among others who did _who-knows-what_ for the agency. Taking a quick sip of PhD Pepper, he stretched his fingers to type on the keyboard. He had a task to finish but his mind couldn’t stop wondering about that girl.

 _‘What is it about her that keeps bugging my brain?_ ’ He wondered, eyes squinting.

Honestly? Part of him was paranoid. She knew where he lived, knew his phone number (well, one of them), and despite being all friendly and cool she was still so mystifying. This could just be one of her disguises. But they were both agents working for the same organization, did she really need to be so…suspicious?

Until he had more information, Seven could only make guesses…but what use was it, anyway? Not only did it give him unnecessary anxiety, it made him lose enough concentration that Vanderwood kept threatening to use his taser on him.

 _‘Alright 707, focus. You need to focus.’_ He mentally repeated to himself. The screen in front of him displayed a mess of neon green coding; he had to decrypt and make sense of it all before sending the end-product to the client. It wasn’t so much hard as it was time-consuming; the codes were so damn long!

“Hey, Madam?” He suddenly called, making Vanderwood’s twitch and mumble some non-pleasant words.

“…What now, Seven?” He asked.

“Do you think she’s alright? Not doing anything too dangerous for the agency? I hope she’s eating properly…” These mindless wonderings had older agent confused.

“You mean agent Valkyrie? Why do you care so much? It’s none of your business what she does.”

“I know that, but...” He sighed and looked to the living room table where a box of lollipops sat. Seven had such an aloof air to him right now. Vanderwood’s interest was piqued. Standing up, he crossed over to the hacker’s work station.

“Seven you’re not _interested_ in her, are you?” Vanderwood questioned, raising a brow. The redhead laughed—loudly. What an absurd question.

“No way! What are you talking about? I’m only really curious about her cause she’s like, super mysterious and cool and cute and funny and actually laughs at my jokes—unlike you—and I’m just trying to figure her out cause she’s a puzzle I need to crack…!” Seven took in a deep breath. His little outburst had the older agent blinking.

“Dude,” Vanderwood pointed at him. “Did you hear what you just said?”

“Nope!” Cheeks burning, Seven quickly turned away to type stuff up.

“Don’t do it, agent Zero Seven. Having fuzzy feelings for her won’t do you any good—“  Seven looked ready to deny it again, but Vanderwood didn’t give him a chance. “ _And_ don’t dig up stuff on her when she’s working for the same agency…remember, anyone who is part of this is at risk of disappearing if one wrong move is made. Don’t give them reason to take you out.”

Vanderwood’s word of caution was seldom listened to, but this was one Seven often kept in mind. That’s right. The dirty nature of their job made it so they couldn’t have a normal life. They needed to operate in the background, away from any spotlight. No room for real relationships of any kind.

Seven considered himself extremely lucky to have the RFA, and if it wasn’t for his partner keeping it a secret he would’ve long been forced to leave them. That was always a troubling thought…

“Okay, okay.” The redhead gave in. “I won’t ask about her anymore.” He knew he’d go back on that statement at some point, but his partner didn’t have to.

* * *

Vanderwood finally decided to leave, but not before telling Seven to finish up his work. That was 3 hours ago, and it was now half past 11. The hacker’s eyes repeatedly closed and opened; days spent overdosing on caffeine and chips, it was now taking its toll on him. Not to mention the brain-power he’s had to use for the agency and the _‘Who is Elle’_ side-project. His friends would think him crazy and really, even he sometimes wondered how he functioned the way he did.

Several yawns later, Seven finally decided to call it quits and get some sleep. Usually he’d dose off at his desk, but right now his aching body craved the comfort of a nice, soft bed. He sluggishly moved towards the bedroom, and in the process of doing so tripped over one of his inventions. A yelp was followed by a string of under-the-breath curses.

“Damn, Madam Vanderwood! Why didn’t she clean like usual?” A brief survey of the room told him the agent had, in fact, cleaned Seven’s place. It was just this one ball of metal thing laying around…maybe the agent left it there on purpose just to get back at him. If so, mission accomplished because now his foot had a faint throb which meant he had to limp his way to the bedroom. Stumbling in, he took off his jacket, tossing it into the dark before he dove in. Soft to the touch, the sheets were drawn over and it took some shifting around to find the most comfortable position.

Seven closed his eyes....only to open them again. Something round and fuzzy was touching him. Frowning, the redhead reached over and gripped the thing to bring into view.

It was the kitty cat keychain Elle gave him.

“How did this get in here?” He mumbled, squishing its cheeks. Too tired to care, he put it aside and nuzzled his face on the pillow. “Mmm, so comfy~”

“Is it now?”

…

Thinking it his imagination, Seven still raised his eyelids, but slowy. When they started to reveal the figure of Elle standing by the bed, however, they opened completely and he sat up. Where the hell did she come from? Better yet— _how_ did she get in without the new password?

“How did…what are you…?” He couldn’t make a complete sentence.

Elle smiled. “Vanderwood told me the password!” Was her energetic response, too energetic for that time of night, he thought. Not to mention he was immediately wary when she said that. His partner wouldn’t just readily it to her, would he? Unless this was agency-related. But for all his talk about how he shouldn’t snoop on her privacy…well, what about her? She basically broke into his home—again!

“…Isn’t it a bit late to drop by for a visit?” He asked, finding his voice finally. The girl sat on the edge of the bed and shrugged.

“Would you rather I come knockin’ at your door at 5 in the morning?” A returned question he seriously thought about for a sec.

“So is it something with the agency?” It had to be. There was no reason for her being there if it wasn’t for work. Not answering right away, he noticed she had an odd look in her eyes as she stared at him, and it made him feel a tad funny inside…

“It’s not, actually.” When Elle spoke, she moved further into the bed. Seven’s eyes widened at the sudden advance.

“Uhhh, w-what then?” When her face started leaning forward, he instinctively shifted back to keep some space between, but she kept moving closer. What the hell was happening? His brain sizzled with panic, he even could nearly feel her hot breath on his lips now.

“Elle y-you’re getting too close—wait!” Moving too far back, Seven fell off the bed with a yelp.

“You okay?” She asked, peeking down at him from the edge.

“Yeah, fine…” He sighed, a dull ache settling in.

“Good.” Next thing he knew, she was on top of him, holding his wrists above his head with one hand.

“What the?!” His mouth got covered by the other hand. He struggled and tried to free himself from her, but it was no use. Damn, she was strong!

“Not a word, agent.” Despite still having a smile on her face, Elle’s voice turned dangerously dark. It was such a dramatic shift, it had him frozen on the spot.

“You’ve been investigating me, huh?” Pressure was added to his muffled mouth. “Do you know what happens when you go sniffing your nose where you shouldn’t?”

He gulped. How the hell did things spin out of control so quickly? And how did she find out he was looking into her? The only one who could’ve said something was Vanderwood, but he highly doubted. The older agent was a little uptight and ill-tempered, and was almost always annoyed by Seven’s behavior, but he wasn’t a snitch.

Maybe she hacked into his computer? No. That couldn’t be. If someone hacked _him_? He would’ve caught them, surely.

“It’s so sad, what I have to do now.” She somberly stated, removing her hand from his mouth which allowed him to gasp for air. Unable to form words, Seven suddenly saw something from the corner of his eyes.

Elle had reached over into the darkness, and what she brought out was a metallic gun. “Any last words, agent 707?” She asked, pointing it at his throat.

The muzzle felt icy cold to the touch, making him shiver. “I-I…” There was only a stutter. He felt helpless in the face of death. Was this it?

“…I don’t want to do this…” She whispered, her voice breaking slightly, but she still pressed the gun to his skin. Elle leaned down and placed a kiss on his cheek…then something wet dripped on his face. When she pulled back he looked up to see tears in her eyes, but her face remained stoic.

“Don’t worry, this will be quick.” She promised. “Before you know it, you will wake up in heaven.”

Heaven? Is that where he was going? With everything he’s done, he doubted there was room for him there…

“Soon, very soon, you will wake up there…” He shut his eyes, but kept listening as she went on, like a broken record.

“You will wake up...”

“Wake up…”

“Wake up…”

“Wake up…” He frowned. Why was her voice growing distant?

“ **Wake up!!** ”

Seven jerked back, in the process knocking down a can of PhD Pepper which luckily was already empty. It was a couple seconds before he could get his bearings, and when he did he found himself still sitting at his desk, Vanderwood hovering over.

“Did you doze off and have a nightmare or something? I saw you fidgeting and mumbling stuff…” He questioned, picking up the can and trashing it in the nearby bin. Seven’s complexion looked a little pale, and a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. Yeah…

“Something like that.” He sighed, running a hand through his fiery hair. It wasn’t real, thank god. His heart was still beating fast, though.

“By the way, I won’t come around for the next few days.” His partner said, making his way to the door. “Thought I’d give you a heads up this time.” Seven barely heard him, still trying to come back from the unpleasant dream he had.

“And one more thing,” Vanderwood called, just as he was about to go out of sight. “Agent Valkyrie will babysit you again.”

That last statement he heard, loud and clear. Stiff as a board, Seven stared silently at the monitor screen. Elle was coming back?

 

Shit.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, it took a bit of a...weird spin near the end, haha ^^;   
> Please feel free comment and share your thoughts about it, I greatly appreciate your support on this fic!!


	6. Elle visits again

Elle was coming.

What now? Seven’s palms were getting sweaty just thinking about it—the dream, that is. He could not shake it off even if he knew it wasn’t real. What he saw in that dream could potentially happen; after all, he had no idea what she as an agent was capable of. Maybe it was a sign for him to stop digging; maybe it was best he didn’t know who she really was…

Yet here he sat, staring at the screen checking all viable leads on her. Damn his unrelenting curiosity. It was dangerous, but there was such a need to know things he just couldn’t help himself. For a moment he questioned his lifestyle, how being in the agency had turned him into a person that just didn’t give a fuck about consequences…

 _‘But I can’t risk too much…I need to keep you safe.’_ Standing up, the redhead moved to the living room, one hand in pocket while the other fiddled with the headphone wire. The state of his home was deplorable, to say the least. Vanderwood had left it near spotless the day before…but 13 hours later it turned into a small warzone thanks to tireless hours of working on a back-to-back project he recently got from the agency—and half that time wasn’t even dedicated to said work. At least he had one project down for the count, and all that was left was the other.

The problem was whenever Seven felt stuck, he had certain habits of getting through it. One was going online to shop for new cars, which could easily take several hours. The other was being sidetracked by a spontaneously brilliant idea for an invention, and the only way to get it out of his head was to build such invention and tinker with it a little, that way he could have peace of mind and return to his real work...unfortunately, that was a repetitive cycle. These tendencies often lead to the genius hacker almost missing deadlines, and he could always, without fail, hear Vanderwood’s nagging—even if he wasn’t physically there to do it.

“Should I try cleaning?” He asked himself. Just because he always had his partner do it, didn’t mean he could do the same with Elle, right? They didn’t know each other for that long, and it would be ungentlemanly of him. On the other hand…

“Aaah, too lazy…” It wasn’t like he was trying to impress her. She’s seen his house messy before…this was just a little worse than then. Plus, he figured she would want him to spend his time focusing on the agency work than getting his place looking presentable for guests.

_Ding Dong!_

Must be her.

Taking a deep breath, Seven walked over to the entrance and opened the door.

“Heya, Seven!” He was greeted with the same smile and enthusiasm he remembered. She was so bright, he nearly forgot about that disturbing dream…nearly.

“H-Hey, Elle.” He blushed a little at the stutter. Why did he stutter?! Ugh. So uncool. “Uhh, come in!”

Stepping aside, the girl went in with a white plastic bag in hand. Was she up to that trick again? He wouldn’t fall for it though, he wouldn’t…

“What’s in the bag?” He asked, trying to be causal as he closed and locked the door.

“Hmm? Oh, it’s ice cream!” She said, not bothering to keep him guessing this time.

“Ice cream?” His eyes went all bright at the mention. It brought a wave of memories…nostalgic ones that at least weren’t so unpleasant to remember.

“Yup! I wasn’t sure what you liked so I got like, seven different flavors!” He gasped, hand pressing to his chest as he wasn’t sure whether to feel touched or guilty.

“W-what? You could’ve just texted me asking what I liked, you didn’t have to spend that much money…” Seemed a little excessive to go out of her way to pick several flavors for him to choose from…but he’d be lying if he said that wasn’t adorably sweet.

 “True true, but I dunno…felt right to get seven.” Winking his way, his face turned bright red. Oh, so that’s what it was? A play on his codename? “Besides, it wasn’t _that_ expensive. It’s ice cream!”

“I guess so. What flavors did you get?” He attempted to peek inside the bag, but she walked off to the kitchen, making him pout before following.

“I got chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, pineapple, green tea, cotton candy _aaaaand_ salted caramel! That last one’s my favorite.” Elle set the bag on the counter before opening the fridge. “I was thinking we could have it once you get your work done.”

Ah! There it was. He should’ve guessed she had an ulterior motive for buying those.

He sulked. “But why after and not _before_? Don’t you want to eat some now?”

Elle turned around and grinned in a way that made him shudder for some reason.

“ _Well,_ it’s not as rewarding to have such an awesome treat before you get your job done, don’t ya think?” That rationality had him staring blank faced at her. Seven had Dr. PhD Pepper and Honey Buddha chips all day every day, and he considered them to be the _best_ snack combo there was. They were, in a way, treats he repeatedly indulged in throughout the day.

But they weren’t ice cream. He seldom treated himself to such a thing, and now that he knew there was some sitting nice and chilly in his fridge, oh…

She was good. Real good. Elle must’ve known Seven wouldn’t be able to resist. Damnit, she was a spy, wasn’t she? How could she know?!

Despite feeling a little suspicious, he now had a newfound drive to get his work done. It burned at him to be this easily influenced.

 _‘Damn ice cream…why do you have to be so good?’_ He hung his head in defeat. “Fine, I’ll do it.”

“Great! Let’s get crackin’, hacker boy.” Patting his shoulder on her way out, he sighed and followed suit.  Seven halted when he noticed her surveying the living room. Suddenly, he felt self-conscious and mentally berated himself for not having cleaned a little at least. Sure, the state was no better than the first time she was there, but…why did it feel different now?

“Another busy night, eh?” He assumed that was the nicest way she could think to put it.

“Uhh, yah…sorta.” Man, he hated this moment. He didn’t care if his place was messy and dirty when Vanderwood was there. The older agent was used to his bad habits and he always ended up cleaning for him…but talking to a pretty girl was hard enough; having her look upon his space like a tornado had rolled in? He was admittedly a little embarrassed.

“And agent Vanderwood is your usual maid-in-arms,” He snickered at that nickname. “Hmm…how about I make you a deal?”

“Oh?” Intrigued, Seven motioned her to continue. Elle picked up an empty bag of Honey Buddha chips to inspect it.

“How about I clean up this place while you’re finishing up your assignment? That way you don’t see me being all lazy while you’re being all hard-working and stuff.”

“…Are you sure about that?” He’d feel a little guilty, but if she was offering…who was he to say no? Elle was standing in for Vanderwood anyway, the only real difference was she’d make a prettier maid.

“Super sure! I can’t attest to my cleaning skills, but I’ll do my best.” Said the girl, showing him a look of determination that was honest to god the cutest determined look he’d ever seen.

Alarmed, he shook his head out of those dangerous thoughts, then gave her a thumbs up. “It’s a deal!”

“Woot!” When she cheered, a grin spread over his face without him realizing. Maybe her energy had a natural way of transferring to others, because in that moment he felt surprisingly revitalized.

Getting to his work station, Seven sat down and looked over when she disappeared for a minute, only to come back with a broom and duster. “You ready, Seven Zero Seven?”

“Ready.” He said, and turned around to face his monitors.

* * *

It took 2 hours for Seven to get done with the first portion of the project. All that was left was gathering the decrypted codes and translating them into actual words that made sense. Meanwhile, Elle had finished cleaning and tidying up the place to an acceptable state. Sitting back, he turned his chair around to look around and, dare he say, she was just as good as Vanderwood.

“You could give the Madam a run for his money.” He complimented, making Elle grin.

“Oh? And does he get compensation for cleaning your place?”

 “Yeah sure…the compensation of having me finish the work~!” Seven would’ve gotten a threat out of his partner, but with Elle? She just passed it off as a good-natured joke that she laughed at. It was a nice-sounding laugh, too…

“You’re really cute.” She said, making the hacker lose his nerve and stare with wide eyes, his cheeks getting a familiar burn again.

“C-Cute?” He squeaked. There weren’t a lot of times he’s been called that…except when he was doing the bragging himself, be that with Vanderwood or with the RFA members. It was all just goofing around, but hearing Elle say that so bluntly threw him off.

“Yep, like Mr. Kittycat!” She held up a hand that had the kitty cat keychain she’d given him.

“Right, right…” He couldn’t tell if she was being serious or just nice. He couldn’t tell a lot of things about her…

“Hey, since I got the first part done, and you got the place clean already…could we have a bit of ice cream?” He chanced to ask, hoping she’d yield a little bit.

“Hmm…should we?” She crossed her arms and raised a finger to her chin, getting the thinking face.

“Pretty please~?” He pushed more, linking his hands together and giving her a pair of pleading puppy-dog eyes. Elle looked at him, bit her lip, and finally nodded.

“Mkay, we can have some.” She agreed, making Seven all excited.

“Yahoo!” He fist pumped the air, and she laughed again. He was really starting to like the sound of that laugh.

“Follow me, good sir~” She beckoned the hacker, who obediently went after her and into the kitchen.

Getting there, Elle pulled out of the fridge the pints of ice cream, placing them on the island like a display. “So what’ll ya have?”

“Hmm…” He looked at each one, debating what flavor he was most for at the moment. He didn’t go for the traditional, boring flavors. No. He wanted something more interesting. Cotton candy was fun, and pineapple sounded refreshing, hmm…

“I’ll take the cotton candy!”

“Here you go!” She pushed that over to him, along with a spoon she took out of the drawer. After that, the others were put away save for the salted caramel which was what Elle was having.

Opening his pint, he stared down at the pink and blue swirl of goodness, dipping his spoon inside to scoop out some of it and into his mouth.

 _‘Oooooooh~’_ He thought, the chilly sweetness naturally melting in his mouth. God, felt like he hadn’t had ice cream in forever.

“This is _soooo_ good. This Jen&Berry’s brand, eh? You did an awesome job at picking!” He praised, earning a thumbs up from her as she was in the middle of eating a spoonful of her own. Seven leaned over a bit for a peek, and quite honestly hers did look pretty tasty too.

“Wanna try it?” Elle asked, seeing him eyeing hers.

“Can I?” Seven asked. Nodding, she pushed the pint over to him. He stared down at the vanilla and beige swirl hers had, along with some chunky bits of chocolate. Dipping his spoon in, he brought it up to test.

“Mm! Thish one good too!” He admitted, surprised. He couldn’t recall having a salted caramel anything before, but it was pretty damn tasty.

“Right? I love it.” She took another spoon of hers.

Looking down at his own, he pushed it over her way. “Try mine?”

“Yes please!” She wasted no time in getting some for herself, and a delightful little expression got on her face at it. “Mmm~! Good good, I approve!”

He didn’t know why, but her approving of his choice had him grinning like an idiot. How dumb was that? She picked the flavors in the first place! But his heart felt so warm and fuzzy when she smiled like that…

It nearly made him forget about the reality of things. She was still an agent, with so many secrets he just could not get his hands on, and he’s been relentless in trying, day in day out.

“Hey Elle?” He suddenly spoke, stealing her attention from the sweet treat as she turned her brown eyes to the redhead.

“Hm?” He had a lump in his throat, and it wasn’t the ice cream…took him a minute to gather himself.

“Uhh, well something’s been bothering since the last time we saw each other.” Seven started off, slowly, as he tried gathering the right words in his head. But would it ever come out right? Elle’s reaction could be anything, and he hoped to god it wouldn’t be bad…or drastic like the dream he had.

“Oh?” She seemed quite attentive now, and it made him feel even more nervous.

“So like…at the club, I asked if you were there with your partner and you said yes,” He stared, but she didn’t say anything as she looked right back at him, waiting. So he kept going. “But um…I just kinda mentioned it to Vanderwood and he said he didn’t recall you ever…having one?”

“Oh that. Yep! He’s right.” Well…that was easy. She disclosed it so freely he almost thought he heard it wrong.

“Sorry, that’s just something I say so others don’t feel like I’m special or that I’m a weak agent.” She added after. That was it? That simple? Seven started mentally facepalming himself for getting so worked up about nothing!

“Aah gotcha, no worries! Just wanted to check, haha.” He rubbed the back of his head, giving an involuntary nervous laugh. Taking up his pint, he started eating again, or more like stuffing his face to keep from acting like a total idiot in front of her.

“Actually…” She began a minute after, making him pause midway into eating another scoop. “And this was before Vanderwood joined but…I did have a partner once. Didn’t last more than a week, though.”

Seven lowered his spoon and blinked. What could’ve happened to make her partner leave so quickly?

“Can I ask what went on?” If it was a sensitive topic, he wouldn’t push her. Even if he was curious, Seven wasn’t the type to pressure someone into giving him details….he usually just hacked them. He’s yet to accomplish that with her, though.

Elle sighed and lazily swirled her spoon in the cup. “I can’t really say much, but there was an accident. He got really hurt and I felt bad. I asked the boss to just let me work solo after that.”

“And he let you?” Surprising. The boss wasn’t usually flexible. He had to wonder if she had connections, or if she was in his good graces a lot. Having your partner get hurt must’ve been a difficult thing to go through, so perhaps he made the exception. But in this line of work, there was always a chance of that happening.

“I do my job well, is all.” She winked before digging into her ice cream again. Seven sat there, silently contemplating on what Elle just told him. At least he had more info on her than before. It was small, but still something. Talking to her about it also made him feel lighter.

“So anyway,” Elle’s voice pulled Seven from his thoughts. “Are you ready to get back into the grind?”

At the mere mention of work, he groaned. “Do I have to? This is so nice, I wish we could just…stay here and eat ice cream and talk more.”

“Aw come on, you’re so close!” She said, in attempts to encourage the now depressed hacker. “You got the first part of the project down, now you just need to translate the coding and send it off.” She paused a few seconds to thinking over something. “Oh! How about you just do some tonight and try to finish it off tomorrow? That way, it won’t be such a burden on you and you’ll still make the deadline.”

“How do you know so much about the assignment?” He suddenly asked. Seven didn’t recall telling her all of that, let alone how many parts to his project there were.

“What, you think I was gonna come in here blind? I know all~” Said the girl in an ‘ominous’ voice that was clearly fake and meant to be a joke. But Seven didn’t laugh this time. It actually had him worried, what she said. How much did she know about him and his work? How much did she know about _any_ of the other agents?

 _‘Calm down, Seven. She might notice if you start acting weird all of a sudden._ ’ The redhead thought to himself. Raising an alarm like that could push her away and turn him into the suspicious one.

“Oh you do, huh?” He remarked, trying to get his joking groove back on. “What’s my name, then?”

“Luciel Choi.” Not even two seconds later, Elle had the answer. The speedy response left him gawking.

“H-How—” Okay, that was _really_ making him freak out on the inside.

“It’s in your profile, silly! Like I said, I wouldn’t just come here blind. I only looked at the general info you disclosed to the agency, and I got permission from the boss beforehand, too.”

“But still…” He mumbled, not understanding why the boss would allow such a thing. Was she that trustworthy that he would openly give her his personal dossier without his consent? He wasn’t exactly happy about that…

“Ah, you think it’s unfair that I know stuff about you, but you barely know stuff about me. Is that it?” More or less, she was spot on. Damn, was this girl a psychic or what? Again, he had to wonder what mystic powers she possessed that she could read him so easily.

“It’s only right I know some stuff too, no?” He countered, “I never agreed to the boss letting you see my file. It’s kind of scary…”

“You’re right,” She nodded. “But I assure you, I’m not gonna go around telling people about you. There’s a clause in the contract that you cannot disclose personal information about workers outside the company.”

Oh yeah. He nearly forgot about that confidentiality clause. Thinking on it now, it felt ages ago that he joined the intelligence agency. He was so young…so naïve….

“But can you still tell me something about you? Like your last name or something? Anything?” This time, he felt entitled enough to insist on the matter.

“Yeah I can tell you my last name: It’s Lee.” She revealed.

“Elle Lee?” It sort of rolled off the tongue, almost like….

 _‘ELLY!!’_ Jumin’s cat popped in his head right away. What were the odds? _‘Might as well just start calling her that, too.’_ The resemblance to Elizabeth the 3rd’s nickname was too funny.

“Yep. Also, my birthday is April 7th.” In trying to appease him, Elle must’ve not realized what she was doing. She couldn’t have. Seven now knew her name—but it could still be a fake alias—and birthday, although not the year. It was definitely something useful to input later in the on-going investigation he had on her, and if it so happened that nothing came out of it, so be it. It would only make him more determined to find out the truth.

“So are we more or less even now?” The girl asked to be sure. Leaning back, he purposely dragged out his response, if only for dramatic effect.

“I guess so…for now.” He finished with what he thought looked like a sinister smirk, but had her snickering at him anyway. He replaced the smirk with a pout.

“It’s probably best we don’t know too much about each other, yeah? The agency motto is pretty much _Live Incognito_.” She was right…but he’ll be damned if he didn’t keep up his secret info-gathering. She was just too temptingly mysterious for the hacker not to try everything he could, at the very least.

“You know, they should use that as their slogan or something, it’s cool. Short and to the point.” He nodded.

“I know right?” She concurred, taking a bite out of her ice cream…which was all gone now. How the hell? In the midst of their talking, she had been constantly eating it, but he didn’t even notice until now. Staring down at his own, he found he wasn’t even halfway through it.

“Damn, you ate that fast.” He openly remarked, impressed.

“Aha, I couldn’t help it, it was so good~” He couldn’t argue with that.

“I think I’ll save the rest for later.” Seven said, not having as much of a sweet tooth as her. He came around the island and opened the fridge to stash it away.

“Okay, guess it’s back to work now…” He mumbled, dejectedly. Elle grinned and gave him a pitty pat to his shoulder.

“You can do it, I know you can.” Strangely enough, he believed her.

Shuffling off, Seven returned to his work station and sat on the chair to start typing again. Elle came soon after, reaching for table in the middle for the box of lollipops she left behind last time. He paused to watch as she pulled one out, took the wrapping off, and stuck it in her mouth before settling on the couch with her phone.

 _‘She really does have a sweet tooth, doesn’t she?’_ He shook his head, fondly. Focusing back on the screen, he heaved a sigh and started typing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, with a little more Elle and Seven interaction ;)  
> As always, thank you for your support!!!


	7. Snacking bad dreams away

“Seven?”

“Seven…”

“Seven~”

The soft calling of his name made Seven stir slowly. Raising his head, tired eyes forced themselves open. His blurred vision gradually focused to see Elle kneeling next to him. Apparently, he fell asleep at his desk again.

“Hurr..?” Seven slurred, feeling beyond exhausted. His eyes glanced to the monitor, and at the corner it read 2AM. _Ugh_.

“Come on, let’s get you to bed. Sleeping here isn’t good for your posture.” She said, gently tugging at him. He didn’t want to at first, he just wanted to keep sleeping even if it was at an uncomfortable spot. But the girl’s continuous persistence was what drove him to finally give in and get up.

“O— ***yawn*** —kay...” Elle came to support him by slinging one of his arms over her shoulders as she helped him off to his room. Seven didn’t even think to care if he was being deadweight right now, he was too tired…

“Almost there.” She said, guiding the redhead down the hall and finally through the threshold of the bedroom. He mumbled something incoherent.

“What was that?” Asked the female agent.

“Did I…finish it?” The work, he meant. With eyes hooded, he felt rather than saw her shake her head.

“Almost. No worries though, you can finish it tomorrow. Right now you need proper sleep, mkay?”

“Mkay…” Seven was in no shape to argue and so just went with whatever she said. Bringing him to the bed, Elle carefully helped him sit down, before he instinctively pushed himself to lie back on the soft mattress. He hummed in content, now that his body was in a more comfortable place to rest.

“There we go, much better.” She smiled, watching him move about to get himself in the best sleeping position.

“Comfy comfy…” He nuzzled his face on the pillow. Covers were drawn over, and when he was fast asleep again, she quietly left.

_‘I’ll wake him up later in the morning.’_ She decided, making way back to the living room. The space was awfully quiet without the sound of Seven’s rapid typing. He had dozed off at the desk only 20 minutes ago, which was the time it took for her to notice and go check on him.

Her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket. Taking it out, she saw there was text from the boss. The girl sighed.

_‘What does he want now?’_ She unlocked the screen to access her text messages.

Boss: Progress?

He must be talking about Seven’s work. Thinking for a minute, she typed out her response and hit send.

Elle: He’s nearly done, probably will have it finished by tomorrow.

Keeping her phone in hand, she leisurely paced around the room, taking in Seven’s taste in décor. It was mostly red and yellow colors with some black and white accents here and there. It was quite bright and bold, to say the least, but the aesthetic did match the excitable and carefree spirit he had going. The least surprising thing was the technology surrounding the place—he was a brilliant hacker, after all. Seven’s level of genius surpassed many, even the boss admitted so.

_‘He’s different.’_

As different as one might think of an agent working for their intelligence group. But she couldn’t help wonder if it was all an act.

Many adopted different personalities and behavioral patterns to keep from being figured out. Since a lot of their jobs were dangerous, it felt only natural to become something other than they were. This redheaded agent behaved the total opposite of how one ought to. He made everything seem lighthearted, like a joke. Given the circumstances in the agency, that kind of disposition was risky; the group stressed the highest level of seriousness in everything they did. It was a little peculiar how he had no problem showing how lazy and indisposed he felt in relation to his work. Was it real or fake? Elle couldn’t quite figure that out. As for her, well…she had her reasons.

_‘He’s done excellent work so far.’_ Even with bouts of whining and occasional delays, no one could deny agent Seven Zero Seven’s skills. He was the best hacker/informant they’ve ever had.

A phone’s beeping sound reached her ears, but it wasn’t hers. Looking around, she spotted the screen of Seven’s phone lighting up from his desk. Elle walked over and picked it up to have a look. There was a missed call from _Madam Vanderwood_ and some text message popups.

Curious, she looked at the sender’s name: _V_

_‘Ah, wasn’t that the guy who enrolled Seven into the agency?’_ As she recalled from his personal file, he had approached the intelligence group with a prospective candidate, a young boy named Luciel Choi with a knack for mathematics. Unsure at first, the boss decided to test young Luciel for a few weeks, and when he proved capable enough it was determined that the boy would work as an entry level informant. Because of Luciel’s natural skills and quick learning ability, it took little to not time for his infamy to grow in the hacking world.

The starting line of the 1st text read,

V: Hey Luciel, it’s been a while hasn’t it? I just wante…

The 2nd text read,

V: I know I’ve been pretty distant lately since that in…

The final text read,

V: I promise I’ll try to be more active for the RFA, so….

She couldn’t read the rest of each message because of the screen lock, which she had no way to access. RFA? What did it stand for? Shrugging, Elle decided to leave it at that; it wasn’t her business. Setting the phone down, the girl went to the light switch to turn off the lights before going to the couch. Just as she was lying down, her phone vibrated with another text. Then another.

Boss: Make sure he’s doing what he’s supposed to.

Boss: Don’t let him get distracted by anything.

Elle: Got it.

After replying, she set her phone down at the coffee table and adjusted herself to a better position. A sigh was breathed, and Elle closed her eyes in hopes of falling asleep without issue.

There were times when she didn’t get proper sleep, either because of restlessness or nightmares. The latter was most troublesome. Like any other person haunted by their past, it would find ways to invade your dreams, making it near impossible to have a peaceful night.

Such was that night.

* * *

Seven woke up about 2 hours after he fell asleep again. Groaning, he found himself up on his feet, shuffling out and down the hall while rubbing his tired eyes. Everything was dark. Did Elle leave? He got his answer when he came into the living room to see her on the couch, only…

“Hm?” Was that a whimper he heard?

Semi-alert now, he quietly moved closer. He heard it again. It was definitely coming from her.

_‘Is she having a nightmare?’_ He thought, leaning over the couch to stare at her. She was frowning and there was a glimmering trail coming from her eyes down to her chin. Tears?

A frown like hers adorned his face and he reached a hand out to gently shake her awake.

“Hey…hey Elle, wake up.” It only took three shakes for her eyes to snap open and gasp.

 “W-Wha?” Quickly jolting up, she wildly looked around before focusing on Seven, who appeared almost as spooked as her.

“S-Sorry! It’s just...you looked like you were having a bad dream.”

“A dream? Oh,” It dawned on the girl, especially when she felt the moist on her cheeks which she quickly whipped off. “Sorry.”

“Eh? What are you sorry for? Everyone has bad dreams.” He assured, coming around to sit next to her. “…Was it that bad?”

Elle sighed, eyes cast down to her lap as she tried to push the images away. “Yeah, but it’s not like I haven’t had them before. It’s just every time I do they’re…painful.”

Realizing how open and vulnerable she was getting, the girl recoiled. “Ugh, I’m pathetic. I should be used to it by now.”

“What are you saying?” Seven chimed, surprised. Until then, he’s never heard her speak in such a gloomy way. “You’re not pathetic, Elle. You had a bad dream, it’s totally normal to react poorly to it, even if you’ve had it a thousand times before.”

Seven too had recurring nightmares that plagued him from time to time. Memories, especially painful ones, could be made to intrude upon someone’s dream world without a lick of warning. He never quite understood why the brain would allow such torment; as if it wasn’t bad enough to remember the past, people had to relive them in their most vulnerable state too? It was super unfair.

“Still,” Elle raised her head to look at him. “It sucks that I can’t get over it.”

“Yeah…” He couldn’t argue on that point. He never did get used to his own. For a brief moment, he considered asking her what it was about, but then mentally facepalmed for thinking of such a selfish and insensitive thing to ask. Why the hell would she tell him? Nightmares were cruel enough without him being an ass and asking her to recount what she saw to him.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to sleep, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, Seven. You worked for hours last night, and you really need to rest up to finish it all in the morning…” Ooh. How he wished she hadn’t reminded him of that. Trying not to sulk about it, he shook his head at her.

“Well now I won’t be able to sleep knowing that you can’t sleep. See? It’s useless, let’s just stay up together!” Was his simple solution. “We can raid the fridge and eat some ice cream if it’ll make you feel even a teeny-wenny better.”

What he said drew a small laugh from her. He took it as a good sign.

“Oh, I don’t know…” Elle seemed reluctant.

“Come ooon~” He kept trying to persuade her. “Let’s have a late-night-early-morning snack! I’ll even try to finish the rest of the work after, promise—no—scout’s honor!” He held up his three fingers.

Elle laughed, this time louder. “Alright.”

“Yahoo! Let’s go.” With newfound energy, he tugged at her to get up and go with him to the kitchen. She did.

Once there, he opened the fridge and brought out the ice cream pints that were left, including his half eaten one. Seven also raided his Honey Buddha chips storage for a bag, and brought out a can of PhD Pepper for himself.

Elle had already picked out her ice cream of choice, which was the green tea flavor. The hacker in turn resumed with his strawberry selection.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay returning to work after this? I feel bad…” Him waking up and having to comfort her like this, when he should’ve been getting a good night’s rest? Yeah. She felt guilty alright.

But it didn’t even cross Seven’s mind to hold it against her. Not at all. “Nah, I’m used to getting 2-3 hours of sleep max, no biggie!”

So it was left at that. He tore open the bag of chips while she indulged herself in the first few spoonfuls of ice cream. The sweetness filled her mouth, flipping her mood almost instantly.

“Mmmm~ god, you were so right. This is just what I needed.” At her comment, Seven grinned in triumph. He managed to lift up her spirits, woot! When he started eating some Honey Buddha chips, Elle suddenly got an idea.

“Oh! Lemme try something.” She said, reaching over for a chip, and carefully scooping some of her ice cream with it. The redhead watched curiously as she took it into her mouth.

“Hmm…mmm! Ish good! Try et!” She said, motioning him to do the same while pushing the green tea towards him. He pulled her pint closer, mimicking her actions and putting it in his mouth. The first crunch in had his eyes going wide.

“You right!!” Finishing that chip-covered ice cream, he tried it out with his Cotton Candy flavored one. Just as good! He pushed that over to Elle for her to try it and she concurred with him.

“Did we just invent a new trend?” She questioned.

Seven gasped. “You mean—“

“Honey Buddha Chip covered ice cream?!” They said it at the same time. He about screamed in his head at how in tune they were.

“Oh boy, we gotta get that idea to the manufacturer, stat! But how?” He wondered.

Both stopped a moment to think about it. Then, Elle snapped her fingers.

“I’ve got it! We post it on social media sites. Best way to get the word out, no?”

“Oh my god, that’s true! How are you so smart?” He asked, staring at her in genuine awe.

She shrugged, lighting her face up with a grin before eating another chip covered ice cream. As their excitement subsided, something started to click in Seven’s head. He felt really comfortable with this girl. Maybe it was because they shared a quirky personality? As far as his disguise went, at least…

Still, it felt good to connect with someone like this. She seemed to get this side of him better than anyone he ever met. Why was that? Elle was an agent with a mysterious past, so mysterious he could barely get a sliver of information from the web. His rational side was always aware of the possibility that she could be faking it in order to relate to him. But why didn’t that bother him as much anymore? That’s the weird part.

Preoccupied with her treat, the redhead took this opportunity to observe Elle’s mannerisms. She dipped her spoon in the cup to scrape the ice cream from the edges, almost like making brush strokes. Once she had enough gathered, she brought the spoon into her mouth, and tugged the end of it down from her tongue. Damn. Now that he was paying attention, it was kind of suggestive—

_‘Oh no oh no oh no’_ Seven got warm all of a sudden. If he let his mind wander to stuff like that, he’d surely pass out. His only saving grace was the cold treat that would hopefully lower his hot temperature right now. He started stuffing his face with it.

“Hey, Seven?”

“Huh?” Seven paused and looked at her. Elle was staring down at her cup still.

“Thanks for doing this. It really did help.” She said. Seven blinked for a second, then smiled softly as he nodded.

“Anytime.”

But all good things had to end. Being filled to the brim with the snacks, the hacker had to honor his word by returning to work afterwards.

“Aright,” He said, once they had cleaned after themselves. “Time to finish this once and for all.”

Elle straightened up, giving a quick stretch of her arms. “I’ll keep you company.”

Nodding, he first grabbed a pack of PhD Pepper before making his way out, Elle following close behind. When he got to the main room, Seven went up to his monitor station and took a seat at his desk. She gave him his space to work, taking a seat on the couch again with her phone in hand. Soon enough, the sound of Seven’s typing echoed through the room. It was oddly soothing.

_‘After he’s done, I’ll have to leave again…’_ She thought, feeling a little sad about it. Yet, there was no reason to stick around afterwards. Her task would be complete, and the boss would likely want her back as soon as possible to start up another assignment. Absently messing on her phone, she briefly glanced over at Seven. He was slightly hunched over, specs shining bright from the monitor screen he so intensely looked at, and long fingers tapping away at the keys. When he set his mind to it, he got things done fast.

* * *

7AM was the time he finished and had the files sent away to the agency.

“Finally~” He declared, looking over to Elle only to pause. She had fallen asleep.

_‘Guess she couldn’t help it.’_ Quietly, he slipped out of his chair and over to the couch. She was breathing normally, no sign of pain or discomfort in her features. Good.

“Hope you’re having good dreams...” He whispered softly. Before he realized what he was doing, Seven reached down and lightly brushed some strands of hair out of Elle’s face. A finger lightly grazed her cheek, earning a slight twitch of her eye and a murmuring sound.

“Mm…” He flushed and quickly pulled away.

_‘What the hell, Luciel? Stop acting like a weirdo!’_ He berated himself, putting further distance between him and the sleeping girl as he went to the washroom. In there, he came to stand in front of the mirror. His cheeks were noticeably red, and his heart was beating so fast…why? Why did she make his heart beat like that? Heaving a sigh, the redhead activated the faucet and splashed some cold water on his face.

“Get your shit together.” Seven told his mirror self. No matter if she was pretty, funny, and totally chill to hang with. He had to remember she was still an agent—and even if she understood him on that level, he couldn’t get attached all the same, for her own safety.

He was drying his face with a hand towel when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Taking it out to check he saw an open chatroom in the RFA app messenger, and looking closer at the participants he noticed V was one of them. Good. Sometime that day he had taken a break to read the text messages left by his friend last night, replying accordingly. V promised he’d try to be more active with everyone, so if he was in the chatroom now that meant he was keeping his word. Seven was glad honestly glad to see that, since it felt like a sign that he was healing from his fiancée’s passing.

He debated on getting on real quick, but some shuffling outside had him rethink and put his phone away prior to leaving the washroom.

“Oh—there you are.” Elle said, having stopped herself from walking on when she heard him come out.

Seven blinked. “Did you just wake up?”

“Yeah, I did. Guess I fell asleep anyway, huh? No bad dreams though so that’s a plus.” She gave him two thumbs up and a grin, which was contagious because he returned it right away.

“Good good! See? I knew snack-time was gonna work, mhm~”

“You were so right!” She agreed wholeheartedly. “So, did you get to finish your work?”

“Yep! All done and sent away.” He confirmed with a nod.

“Yay, good job!” Elle gave him a congratulatory pat on the arm.

“A pat? That’s all I get after endless hours I put into it?” He exaggerated with a pout, but it was all play. He was fine with a pat; that was actually more than what he usually got from Vanderwood...he couldn’t recall the last time his partner praised his smarts. Hmm…

The girl’s snicker brought back his focus.

“Ya know? You’re so right. C’mere buddy!” Elle suddenly tugged Seven forward into a big bear hug. His eyes widened, cheeks flushing in an instant. He felt so stupid just standing there, frozen while she held up the hug on her own. He didn’t get a chance to return it because she soon broke away.

“Well, gotta go!” She randomly announced, taking off down the hall. He didn’t know what was more shocking: the hug or her suddenly leaving.

“W-Wait, right now?” He stuttered, trying not to trip over himself as he hurried after her.

“Yep. I got agent stuff to do.” Elle said, stopping short of the entrance to turn around. Seven skidded to a stop, having almost run into her.

“Thanks again, Seven. I mean it.” She had that sincere look in her eyes again. Feeling coy, the redheaded hacker rubbed his neck and smiled awkwardly.

“S-Sure thing.”

When Elle left, Seven still stood there a while longer.

_‘Could it be that I’m…?’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of this one? Let me know with a comment below! :D  
> Appreciate all my readers~!


	8. Intruder!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI, this chapter contains some actual chatroom messages from the intro to Ray's route :D thought I'd give a head's up!

A week passed since Elle's last visit. They still kept in touch through texts, though responses were few and far in between. Oh, and Vanderwood was back too. He had asked how things went while being gone, but all he did was shrug and say ‘ok.’ His partner didn’t care to push the subject. All was back to normal, except…

 _‘Did I really fall for her in such a short time?’_ That question kept popping up in Seven’s head. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out when, how, or why. Or maybe he could…and he just didn’t want to admit it because he knew…he knew it wouldn’t work.

 _'We’re secret agents, living in the shadows, leading dangerous lives,’_ That’s what his logical side said, _‘We don’t have time for friendships or family or…love.’_

But that was quite a hypocritical thought because wasn’t the RFA his friends? His family in a sense, too? Obviously not by blood. No. That one had to be kept far away from him, where it was safe. Joining the RFA felt like no more than a favor to V and Rika—at first. Those two helped him through so much in his life; helped him get to where he was today and it felt like it was the least he could do in return. Seven never expected to truly bond and care for them as he did.

Yoosung, being so innocent and naïve, was his go-to troll victim. Zen was an aspiring actor who he wanted to help succeed—Seven helped raise his popularity with his hacking skills, and that was something he was pretty proud of. Jaehee was…well, she was a nice and sensible person, and Jumin’s assistant which made him feel quite sorry for her whenever she had to stay late to work on stuff for her boss. Then of course, there Jumin Han. he had a unique relationship with the C&R corporate heir that was mostly derived from his adorable little cat, Elizabeth the 3rd, who he dubbed Elly.

Elly…

Elle Lee. That was the name she gave him. The first was most likely a fake alias. But that last name…could it be real? Seven had input ‘Lee’ into the search system he’d been running since first meeting the agent girl, but lately he’s had a heavy conscious. He kept going back and forth on whether he should continue or not. Elle was nice and sweet, and she was accepting of his strange humor. Because he started feeling different about her…was this wrong now? Truthfully, it had always been wrong. Doing a background check on someone without their permission wasn’t exactly moral, but at least in the beginning it had been out of objective curiosity and precaution.

Not anymore. He _felt_ something. He felt it and it scared the hell out of Seven. His thoughts were constantly jumbled whenever it came to Elle. He didn’t know right from wrong, or wrong from _really_ wrong. He just knew that she was a damn mystery girl, one who managed to befuddle the genius Seven Zero Seven. He couldn’t even do his work without thinking about her. They were connected through the agency, so his mind naturally traveled to the quirky girl with a really sweet tooth. His only saving grace was the RFA, because with them he could momentarily distract himself from his troubling thoughts and feelings.

Presently, he was taking a break from work–without Vanderwood’s knowledge– to chat on the messenger.

707: Let’s PARTAAAYY!!

Yooosung★: lolol, party?? When??

_ZEN has entered the chatroom_

ZEN: Wait what??

ZEN: We’re having a party now??

707: Lolol

707: Dunno, maybe??

Yoosung★: Don’t joke, Seven! Are we really?

707: Lol okie

707: Nah, don’t think we are

_V has entered the room_

V: Hello everyone ^^

Yoosung★: V!! Are we having a party?

V: What’s this now? A party?

707: Oops sorry! Didn’t mean to start up something lololol ignore that!!

V: Oh, I see now...

V: I don’t think it’s the right time for that yet, sorry...

Yoosung★: Oh...

V: Oh hold on, I’ll be right back

ZEN: Too bad

707: Okie, V! Sorry everyone >_<

ZEN: Hey, did you guys see the thing about Jumin?

Yoosung★: Huh? What about Jumin?

ZEN: **I** saw on TV yesterday. Jumin’s book is now a bestseller.

Yoosung★: Oh that -

Yoosung★: You mean Jumin’s quote collection book?

ZEN: Yea that book. Isn’t the title so strange too?

707: **The Successful Path of a Certain Man,,,,**

****

Seven laughed as he typed that, causing Vanderwood to look over at him suspiciously. He quickly turned his chair away and pretended to be involved in serious work.

Yoosung★: lollll

Yoosung★: So cringy lollll

ZEN: yes.....

ZEN: **Why is it even selling?**

 _‘Lol Zen, probably ‘cause people wanna be like Jumin??’_ He thought to himself. Admittedly, Jumin Han had quite a presence to him; not to mention being super rich, which was enough for an ordinary working person to pick up their book and see if they could get any clues to being as rich and successful as him. A few more messages were exchanged, but something suddenly caught his eye...

“Hm?” He scrolled up some of the chat, then froze. No..... _no way_.

707: ?

707: ??

707: ?????

Yoosung★: Why, what’s wrong?

Jaehee Kang: Luciel, please do not start hogging the chatroom.

707:

707: ??????!?!?!?!

ZEN:  What’s wrong with you?

Seven had to do a double-triple- ** _QUADRUPLE_** check to make sure he was seeing it right.

“How the..?!” He hissed and tried keeping his voice down when Vanderwood cast another glare at him. He quickly typed in the chatroom, feeling his palms sweaty and heart beating super fast.

707: **Intruder**

707: **Intruder**

Jaehee wasn’t buying it, and he cursed his inability to express real seriousness on the messenger. Fortunately, V soon backed him up.

V: What did I just see...?

V: MC?

Yoosung★: Forrrealll!!!

Finally they noticed, but all of a sudden he was being questioned about the security of the chatroom. Honestly? So was he. Still shocked, he didn’t know how to explain properly...

User ‘MC’ finally responded with a ‘Hi!’

Who was this MC? Where did they come from? So many unanswered questions, but a thought _did_ cross his mind.

Wait.

_Waaaait._

A few days ago, he started messing around with a group of hackers who claimed their server had topnotch security. Seven being Seven, he had to give it a go. Could it be that those same hackers were getting back at him for challenging them?

“But how did they manage to hack in so fast?” He grumbled, mentally facepalming and cursing his competitive side. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to send them a challenge...now he was in deep shit for it...

It was hard to make sense of it in the chat, and he didn’t blame the others for being mad at him if this really was related to his ‘private affairs’, as Jaehee put it.

When MC agreed, it riled him up and without realizing, he was already typing away another challenge.

707: **You, me, hacking match, wanna give it a go?**

Once sent, he stared at the message and sweatdropped. Damnit. Why was he like that? Trying to get his shit together, Seven decided best to start tracing the location of this intruder. In the same breath he attempted to reassure the concerned members; he wasn’t doing so well at it.

V’s response made him feel guilty, too. Someone actually managed to break into something _he_ , the ingenious hacker Seven Zero Seven, had made? The RFA app was supposed to be safe and super hard to hack. He sat there a moment, mulling it over.

...

…

What a rush, though! This never _ever_ happened to him, and despite the obvious potential danger, _he was excited beyond belief._

Yoosung, though...poor innocent young boy Yoosung. He actually had the guts to be direct and ask where they were from.

MC’s response was nothing short of dubious. _Come to tell them something good?_ He looked back at the tracing he put on the username, but the result was...

“No way.” He tried it again, and the same thing happened. He texted the chatroom, but once again didn’t make much sense to the rest. Ugh.

707: I can’t track down

707: the location **at all.**

He would’ve scoffed when Yoosung said he might’ve been rusty, but…this happened before. With Elle. Was he really rusty?

Jumin took over the interrogation, asking MC what purpose they had to log in. Seven waited on pins and needles…

MC: I was told to host a party.

Now, that threw him for a loop. A party? Déjà vu, Déjà vu! Weren’t they discussing a party just before? He was joking around and it got a little awkward… but now this stranger comes in and talks about hosting an _actual_ party? So weird. So so **_soooo_** weird. But wait! They could’ve just read the chatroom backlog too…but if the hacking happened just moments ago, they wouldn’t be able to access past messages prior to gaining access for the first time. Oh, he was so second-guessing his genius right now.

707: Eh, party? The party’s your purpose?

Jaehee Kang: Our party?

707: U didn’t come here for me?

V: By party…are you talking about the RFA fundraising party?

 _‘V…what are we gonna do about this?’_ He thought with a deep sigh.

The following messages from Yoosung didn’t make things any better. It sent such a downer mood in the chat, Seven even had to suck in some air and try to push away the sadness creeping in his heart. Texting again, he decided to ask V an important question.

707: we can make-do by cutting off access

707: if you want, V.

V didn’t respond right away, and another string of messages followed which lead to something even more unexpected…

Oh damn. This stranger just mentioned Rika.......... _Rika_.

Yoosung★: WHAT?????

ZEN: OMG…

Even Seven couldn’t believe it, he thought he read it wrong. Was that right?

This went on for at least a good twenty minutes; them trying to make sense of this MC, what their purpose was for being in the RFA app, and what their relationship was to Rika, their dear friend and RFA founder who passed away months ago…it was a whirlwind of emotions Seven had to keep in check since Vanderwood was there. It was hard to keep a straight face in the middle of this mind-blowing revelation. Everyone was suspicious, he more than anyone else, and rightfully so.

V’s sudden request to put a call through to MC was surprising, and Seven hesitated. Was that such a good idea? They didn’t know the first thing about this stranger, after all. V sounded determined, however, thinking this as some sort of sign that Rika wanted someone to keep holding the parties in her place. It felt so far-fetched and unreal, but if V believed it, then maybe it was possible.

A couple more exchanges took to them explaining what being a member of the RFA meant, and while they appeared hesitant at first, MC warmed up to the idea. Everyone was in total agreement about hosting parties again, even Seven felt some excitement at the prospect, but the nature of this was still very suspicious…

V told him to keep investigating them, in the meantime. Seven felt weird about the RFA leader openly asking that in the chat. It reminded him about the search he was doing on Elle, how he was doing it behind her back which, considering his developing feelings, added to his guilt. What if MC was totally innocent in all of this? Could he do the same to them?

No. He had to ask permission this time. Surprising it was when MC gave it right away. They were literally allowing him to do a background check on them, but at least it was better to have their consent than to do it secretly and without their knowledge. Seven sighed. He should’ve asked her, but it was too late now…wasn’t it?

The chat buzz started to fizzle out. As soon as V logged off he felt the phone vibrate in his hand and the blue-haired man’s caller ID pop on screen.

“I’mma go to the bathroom!” He told Vanderwood, dashing out before the other agent could say anything. Seven quickly replied on the chat before logging off himself to take V’s call in the bathroom.

“Hello? V? Yeah…I know.” The older man didn’t sound so well on the other line, understandably so. Someone suddenly shows up on the app, talking about how a dead friend sent them to host parties? Who in their right mind would be fine after that bomb drop?

“I’ll keep digging up on them, don’t worry. Right now? Are you sure? Okay, if you say so…” He sighed, rubbing his temples.

“Alright, I’ll put you through, let me hang up first.” He pressed the end call and set up the connection between V and MC. He started wondering what things V would tell this stranger. Whatever was related to Rika, it never failed to send his friend into a very fragile state. Seven missed the golden haired lady, but he was sure the sentiment was a lot stronger with V. He felt responsible for this breach. Maybe he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. Being arrogant was never a good thing, they said.

_Ding!_

A text message. He looked down, expecting it to be from V…

Instead, it was Elle.

Elle: Heya, Seven Zero Seven!

That message right there was what brought him out of his inner panic, if only for a little bit. Seven instantly texted back.

707: Hey Miss Elle~! Where you been?

Elle: Haha, no spoilers!

His heart skipped. _Spoilers_? Spoilers to what, he wondered.

707: Aww, you’re no fun T-T

Elle : Yea I am, and you know it~

Damn, she was right. At the very least, she was a big step up from ‘Agent Boring Vanderwood.’ He snorted, thinking how much scolding he’d get if he called him that. Would it be worse than Madam or Ms. Vanderwood, though? Thinking about what to say next, his thumbs glided over the screen.

707: So what have you been up to?

Elle: Work T-T always work work work

707: Oh no, I relate T-T work sux >_<

Elle: work sux x1000000

707: lolol

707: work sux x 1000000 x ∞!

Elle: LMAO omg yaaas +_+

Seven couldn’t stop laughing now. Such a mood shift! This was great though, it released some of the tension he felt up until now. But how ironic it was that, before he was relying on the RFA to distract him from Elle, and now _she_ was distracting him from the mayhem happening in the app itself.

Elle: Anyway, just thought I’d drop by and check in! Didn’t really reply to ya last time, lol

707: Lolol yah I was wondering about that, but no worries!

Elle: Yup! So…

707: So

Elle: Soo~

707: Soooooo…~

Elle: Gotta go, boss suddenly showed up and is on my A$$, ugh! BYEEEE

707: Omg LOL

707: STAY ALIVEE! T-T

Elle: Hahah, okie! ;3

It ended there. Brief as that chat was it felt liberating, to joke around for a few minutes and not have to worry about the RFA server hack. Which reminded him…

Seven finally returned to his work station, ignoring Vanderwood’s questioning looks as he settled back in the chair.

“I hope you’re not procrastinating again.” The older agent called out.

“Procrastinate? Me? Never!” He shot Vanderwood a grin. The man scoffed, obviously not buying that bullshit.

“Just get back to work.” He said, returning to his book. Seven sulked, but did as told. He had his work cut out for him, in so many ways.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MC's in the house! How will Seven handle this, his work, AND his growing feelings for Elle? Stay tuned for what happens next! ~


	9. Juggling duties

Two days.

Or, to be more precise, one day and 20 hours. Either way, that’s how long it’s been since the RFA messenger app was hacked and MC—a girl, by the looks of it—joined their group chats. Personally, he would’ve cut communication with this person right away until they knew more, but V was adamant in letting her stay until further notice. Because Seven was in charge of the app’s security and RFA classified information, the V naturally shared more with him than anyone else…but he was still kept in the dark a lot.

 _‘What do you know about this, V?’_ He kept wondering to himself.

Seven began his background check on MC, and was also tracing whoever let her into the app in the first place, but so far nothing was coming up. He called V a couple times to talk about it, but there wasn’t much to go on at the moment. What he did notice was that the man was being uncommonly secretive, and he constantly stressed how important it was to keep MC in the app and to not act weird with her.

Easier said than done. He sort of understood why; this could be a potential trigger to whoever connected her there, but it wasn’t like he could stop the others from asking questions. V told him to just act as usual and keep conversations flowing as the rest got used to MC. Seven did warn him that they would get super suspicious if he told them she wasn’t a threat, but couldn’t give solid proof of that. Since the man told him he’d have something to say about that soon, he let it be.

Oh. But if that wasn’t bad enough, something else happened that had him on edge. The day after the app intrusion, while he was talking to V on the phone, he spotted an unusual activity: an update. Not made by him.

Someone had hacked into his servers. _His_ servers _._ What’s more?

**THEY.**

**WIPED.**

**IT.**

**CLEAN.**

He had to put an end to the call to check that out. The hacker even left a message: _Let’s have a party_. What was the meaning of this? Trying not to freak out too much, Seven sent a rushed text to V after he saw that.

It was so baffling. His mind was going haywire with everything that was happening in such a short amount of time. It was thrilling but super dangerous; he’s never had to deal with something like this before. Not wasting time, Seven started tracing this threat and at the same time worked on recovering his servers. The programs he had on were at a constant run, but in order to have high efficiency he had to put a momentary pause on the background check he was doing on Elle.

MC seemed to like Seven’s sense of humor. He’s tried his best to keep up his character in the chatroom and on the brief phone calls with her. He even suggested some ridiculous party guests to appear like he was being friendly and helpful. In truth, he was still suspicious, but at least she sounded pretty chill and open to his quirky behavior.

The problem was, between the research, the tracking, _and_ his work for the agency? There was little down-time for Seven Zero Seven. He spent almost 40 hours in front of the monitors, multi-tasking and working his fingers to the bone trying to find out how this happened and how it was all connected…he probably had bags under his eyes already.

At the very least, he was confident that the hacker who got into his personal servers wasn’t interested in the RFA messenger, but…it was likely the same one that introduced MC to them. Maybe they did that as a diversion to get to him.

In the afternoon of the second day, V logged in to tell everyone of the decision he made. It was a two-part news, in fact. One: they were going to host their 3rd party soon; Two: MC was now an official member of the RFA. It was a big shock to all the members; some took it better than others. It was all happening too fast, he thought. The mysterious MC and the hacking of the app, the hacking of his servers and that shady message…they couldn’t just be coincidences. Now they were actually having a party again? Even if he had several doubts, Seven had no choice but to go along with what V wanted. At the end of the day, he trusted his judgment.

He went to take a sip of PhD Pepper, only to find it empty. Damnit. Pushing away from the desk, Seven got up and headed to the kitchen to grab some more. Vanderwood watched him from the couch, but said nothing.

 _‘I can’t believe this happened. First someone hacks into the messenger…then my servers?’_ Maybe he _was_ getting sloppy, somehow leaving a tiny little crack for this person to go in and wreak havoc. Still... it would be difficult for them to get in without him noticing right away; he was quite honestly impressed with this hacker’s skills.

Taking two cans out of the fridge, he returned back to his work station, only for Vanderwood to close his book and stand up.

“I’ll get going now, but I’ll be sure to check back with you in a day or two...don’t forget to have your submission in for the Game of Kings mission, agent Seven.” His partner reminded before taking leave.

Seven groaned. Why couldn’t he just focus on one thing at a time, was that too much to ask?

It was. For the past few years, he’s had to juggle secret agent work with RFA duties, but they’ve never overlapped like this before. If he wasn’t careful…he could already hear Madam Vanderwood’s bitching.

He checked the maintenance he was running on the app. Everything looked fine. He checked his search progress on MC. Nothing. He checked the tracking on the hacker who got into his servers. Also nothing. Seven sighed. When was he going to start getting results? This waiting period was extremely aggravating.

 _‘I wonder if V found something…he’s been acting so strange, like he knows there’s more to this.’_ There was no mistaking V’s concern for the whole ordeal. As the RFA leader, he liked taking things upon himself without having to needlessly worry the rest. They were alike in that sense. But if V knew something important that could help this investigation, shouldn’t he be able to share with him? He hoped so.

Seven’s phone buzzed. He picked it up to see a text from Elle. His saving grace.

Elle: Heya, Seven!

 Grinning, he instantly replied back.

707: Heya, Elle!

Elle: lol, whatchya doin?

707: Secret~

Elle: Ooh~ what kinda secret?

707: The juicy kind~

Elle: A juicy secret? My oh my

Elle: Well whatever it is, hope everything’s going ok?

707: Well…

707: Sorta…

707: Not really…

707: Maybe?

Should he tell her? He desperately wanted to unburden himself on someone other than V, but…

Elle: Uh oh, that don’t sound good

Elle: Anything I can do to help?

Help? Seven thought about it. He couldn’t risk telling her the slightest bit of what was happening. She didn’t know about the RFA, and it was best to keep it that way.

707: How abooooutt….you send me a cosplay pic!

Elle: Cosplay pic? Of what?

Seven paused, re-reading his suggestion and shaking his head. Why did he type that? So random.

707: Erm…whatever you want! You got disguises too, right?

Elle: Oh! Ok lemme think for a few mins

707: Oki!

As he waited for her reply, he wondered what kind of dress-up she’d come up with. He himself had several clothes and wigs at his disposal; Elle had even seen a variation of it before.

 _‘That time at the club, she had a short blue wig on, but I wonder if she has a collection like mine?’_ It felt silly, to think about such things when he should be concentrating on catching the hacker(s) and fixing problems. But it was oddly therapeutic, to just step out of this mayhem for a moment and think silly things. His phone buzzed with another text message.

Elle: I’ve got it!

707: Oh? Whatchya have for me?

Elle: You ready for this?

Ready? Had she already taken a picture? If so, that was really fast…

707: Ready!!

Elle: Ok, here goes…!

She sent a picture file just as he was taking a sip of his drink….that he quickly spat out when he saw it.

“Wha— ***cough* *cough***!!” He had to pound his chest a couple times to get his coughing fit in check and his breathing back to normal.

The picture sent was of her, with a black hair bun, thick black eyebrows, stuffed up cheeks and….a sumo wrestler bodysuit.

What…the flipping…hell?

It was such a ridiculous sight he couldn’t help but stare for a minute before breaking into a laughing fit. Seven responded as soon as his laughs toned down into little snickers.

707: !!!!!

Elle: U like?

707: Omg lololol

707: I sooo didn’t expect that! GENIUS!

Elle: lolol ikr? Thought this might perk you up a bit!

707: It did! YOU’RE AMAZING! +_+

Elle: Why thank ya! ;D

And he meant it. Elle was so good at lifting his spirits, no wonder he was so…

 _‘God help me.’_ He thought, feeling his heart thumping fast.

Elle: I hate to go T-T but I just got more work

707: Oh T-T I should prob get back to mine too, ugh

Elle: Double ugh T-T

707: This sux T-T

Elle: Totally T-T

Elle: Let’s suffer together in mind and spirit!

707: LOL Let’s!

Elle: Alrighty, later gator~

707: lololol laterz sweetie~

Setting his phone down, Seven breathed a sigh. Too bad she couldn’t chat longer, but that was usually the case anyway. Elle was an agent, just like him, with her own work to do and he couldn’t fault her for leaving in a hurry.

“Better get back to my own slave work.” Seven muttered despondently before yawning. Ugh. He was so tired…but he couldn’t stop now. Taking a few more sips of his favorite drink, he set it down and began typing away on the screen.

* * *

When 11:30PM came around, the genius hacker looked half-dead; he was sitting hunched up in front of the monitors with dark circles around his eyes, lids drooping constantly. He had dozed off at least 20 times in the middle of work.

There were two bags of Honey Buddha chips trashed on the floor, and about four cans of PhD Pepper littering his desk space. In Seven’s mind, the yellow snack was the equivalent of a nutritional meal; it was convenient and it kept him from going hungry. The caffeine consumption helped him stay awake and alert. Even when he was functioning on auto-pilot, with his mind far gone from reality, that combo snack was what kept him going. Was it a healthy habit? Nope. Out of the question. But as long as they got him through these hellish times, he didn’t care much about his present health.

Another episode of dozing off came about at 11:50, but instead of nodding himself awake like usual, a buzz from his phone startled him out.

“H-Huh?” His hand clumsily felt for the device. Bloodshot eyes instantly winced when the bright screen shone into them. “Ugh, what…” He suddenly paused, seeing that it was Elle calling. She was actually _calling_ him.

Fumbling for a second, he finally hit answer and put it to his ear. “H-Hullo?” He said, trying to fight off an incoming yawn.

“ _Hey, you genius hacker you~!_ ” She greeted in her usual bubbly voice.

“Hey, you sweet…um…agent you?” Bleh. He could not think of a proper greet-back right now. Seven sighed.

“ _Hm? You sound tired…oh no, did I just wake you up?_ ”

“N-No no!” He sputtered, “I mean yeah, but it’s good cause I was dozing off and I still have tons to do.”

“ _Aw man…did they really give you that much stuff?_ ”

Well, yes, but he was also splitting his focus with the RFA, so…

“Ehehe, kinda? I’ve been procrastinating a lil’, maybe…I’m just so tired I barely slept four hours for the past two days.” He confessed with a groan.

“ _What?_ ” A gasp sounded on the other end. “ _Oh no hun, you can’t go on like that. You need proper sleep!_ ” Elle was right, of course, but he couldn’t afford to sleep for long when so many things were happening right now.

“Nah I’m used to it…I just need to get through this big hurdle right now. I’ll get more rest once I’m in a good spot.  Actually, scratch that. I might just take a few days off.” Preferably for the RFA party—if they were really having it again.

Seven briefly wondered if V only said that to keep MC in the messenger. Whatever was happening on her end, it sure had the RFA leader troubled. Yielding no results on his end, the redhead felt frustrated with himself that he couldn’t offer a solution already. This surprise hacking was both intriguing and maddening. Had he finally met his match?

“ _Still…don’t just sit in front of your monitors for hours-on-end without taking breaks to rest. I don’t want you getting sick._ ”

Oh? She didn’t want him sick? Even if she said it for the sake of saying it, that right there melted his heart a little.

“Aww, you care about me that much?” He asked in a playful tone.

“ _I do! You’re the coolest agent I’ve ever met._ ” Elle’s response rendered him speechless for a moment. She thought he was cool? Really? A blush warmed his cheeks.

“Oh my god, I’m so flattered right now! But you know what?” He decided to return the compliment. “I think _you’re_ the coolest agent I’ve ever met, too!” And funny and pretty and sweet and kind and amazing—those extra things were thought in his head, but didn’t dare to say out loud.

“ _Aww, now_ I’m _flattered!_ ” When she said that, Seven chuckled. He tried to imagine her standing before him, with rosy cheeks, a sweet smile, and a pair of pretty brown eyes. He got a stupid grin on his face. God, just how deep did he fall for this girl? He barely knew anything about her. That fact alone was supposed to make him wary, not…attached.

“ _As much as I like hearing compliments, I better head off._ ” Elle said, making Seven come out of his little daydream.

“Already?” Conversations were always short with her. He sort of wished they could take a day off from their hectic agent lives and just spend it together, without having to worry about work or anything else. Just the two of them, hanging out…maybe more.

“ _Yah. I gotta get up early tomorrow._ ” She said.

“Oh, okay,” He couldn’t mask the disappointment in his voice. “We’ll talk another time, then?”

“ _Most def! I hope you get some proper sleep, too. Don’t want to meet you again and see that you’ve become some kind of sleep-deprived zombie. What if you try to eat my brain?_ ” A chuckle followed her statement.

“If I turn out like that, at least I’ll have a tasty brain to munch on, yum yum~” He said the last portion in a weird child-like voice.

“ _Yum yum indeed~_ ” She agreed, laughing it off afterwards. They were like two goofballs feeding off of each other’s weird humor. It felt so good…

“ _Okay, I really gotta go now_.” She said, making Seven sigh heavily.

 “Okidoki.”

“ _Ttyl, Seveny. Stay health and fresh! Super Agent Elle over and out!_ ” With that, she hung up.

“Cya…”

He stared down at the time on his phone. It was past midnight now. Seven would’ve never guessed they had talked for more than 5 minutes; it felt so much shorter than that.

‘ _But my time with her always seems short…not enough.’_ He thought, mindlessly gliding his thumb across the screen. He debated about getting some much needed shuteye like Elle suggested, but part of his brain didn’t let him because there were still things to do.

 _‘I just gotta power through this a bit more.’_ Maybe if he stayed up just awhile longer, he would get some solid results.

So that’s what he did. Seven continued his work for another hour, but inevitably fell asleep at his desk.

He had a dream about Elle again, only this time it wasn’t a nightmarish scene where she had a gun pointed at him. No. This one was sweet and comforting. They were laughing and joking around like usual, eating a whole bunch of snacks and sweets…he would lay his head on her lap and she would brush her fingers through his red hair.

Waking up from that dream was something Seven sorely regretted. He wanted to shut his eyes and go back to it so bad…but he couldn’t. The real world was cruel and it reminded him of responsibilities he couldn’t ignore.

_‘Damnit all.’_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to condense the 11 Days in Ray's route into a few chapters, but I'm still trying to figure out how that will pan out. It's a process, so I hope y'all will bear with me on this ^o^;
> 
> As always, thank you for the kind support and comments! <3


	10. Seven's 99 problems - 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI there are many (and probably redundant) chatroom messages from Day 3-4 of Ray's route. Sorry! T-T

707: Who knows when I might meet my demise

707: in the middle of my mission, like an itty-bitty fly?

707: Mission No. 700

707: It’s titled

707: **Incense to Kill…**

707: It’s a dangerous mission

707: …..

707: so instead of my last will

707: let me show you my last pic

707:

Seven was super proud of that cosplay. It was no small feat getting the ensemble together, especially the fairy wand and wings – robotic wings at that. He’d built them a while ago and decided to take it for a test-flight while doing work for his boss. Whenever he got a direct text from the top dog, he got chills. Vanderwood he could stall, but _the_ boss? Nope. Better to get it done before he got in trouble with the guy who sent him his paychecks.

He did feel a little guilty because the mission had him neglecting his duties to the RFA. At the very least he managed to stabilize the security on the server before he set off on it.

 _‘This double duty is gonna give me gray hair, I know it.’_ He thought, shaking his head. MC was always in tune with him, though, which really did help him see her in a _slightly_ more positive light. Maybe she wasn’t a bad person…just someone caught up in all of this by accident. Or…maybe she was faking it. He really couldn’t tell. For now he just went with the flow, like V said.

Jaehee had logged into the chatroom and was startled by his picture. He laughed. Too bad you couldn’t delete a photo once it’s been posted, lol. But MC’s raunchy comment did make him blush. A nude photo next? Was she teasing or being serious? Either way, Jaehee didn’t like the sound of that and went on about how Seven was a nuisance or something of that nature. It was pretty fun messing around with the RFA members, especially the really serious and not-in-the-mood-for-your-jokes peeps.

“It’s too easy to get to them.” He affirmed out loud, proceeding with his chatroom shenanigans awhile longer.

 _‘I wonder if I should send this pic to Elle too? She did send one to cheer me up…maybe she’d appreciate the returned favor?’_ Before he realized, he had already accessed their shared text messages and sent her the picture.

Going back to the RFA messenger, he started interacting with MC a bit, trying to see if he could get any small clues about her through their conversation, but of course he had to quickly redirect it to something else so he wouldn’t seem too suspicious. That was the tactic he most often used to confuse his opponents…well, he didn’t really know if MC was a real threat for sure, but you could never be too careful. The subject of V’s hair color came up, and it took a weird turn on Seven when Jaehee asked where he got his red hair from.

 Uhhh…

Some ludicrous explanation was thought up and typed into the chat. He wasn’t about to admit where the hereditary flaming hair color came from, because it was too painful to remember…. _her_. His totally fake answer was a prelude to his subject change, which was him suggesting that they invite a dragon to the party. MC seemed all for it and he was relieved. _‘Dodged a bullet.’_

In the midst of talking about party guests, he felt a sudden shift in altitude. He suddenly dropped a few inches from the air, making him gasp and nearly lose his grip on the phone and the wings’ remote control.

“Oh!!” The wings had folded for some reason, halting the flapping motion that kept him in the air. He tried gripping behind him to fix it, but he didn’t have the proper range.

“Damnit.” He was losing more altitude by the second. _‘I gotta land.’_

In the midst of his panic, he had typed some nonsensical stuff on the chatroom, so he now had to explain why.

707: My wings were folded so i almost dropped my phone T-T

Jaehee was super skeptical, while MC was totally backing him up.

707: I may be able to make it for commercial use if I research it a bit more.

707: Wait for it till then!

707: I’m off to fix my wings

Jaehee Kang: Are you serious…?

The wind shifted and he started to drop lower and lower.

707: Must get going

707: the wind just changed and I’m falling

707: with the westerlies on my side.

He gave a quick ‘bye!’ and focused on not falling face first onto the ground.

“Steady, steady…” Seven used the remote to ease his landing, and luckily the wind ended up being of help as he set down safely on his two feet.

“Phew! Close call.” He took off his wings to inspect them, but a buzz from his phone had him shifting focus. He gasped. Elle was calling!

Pressing the answer button quickly, he immediately greeted the agent girl. “Did you see my pic???”

“ _I diiiiid! It’s **FAIRY BRILLIANT**!_” Seven joined her in a laugh. He felt even more accomplished now that she said that.

“I know right? It took so long to get it all together too!”

“ _Oh I bet,_ ” Elle said, “ _I was gonna text you back but then I thought, ‘nah, I gotta call him for this.’_ ”

The fact that she chose to call him instead of sending a mere text message meant the world to him. She didn’t know how elated he felt in hearing that.

“Well I appreciate the enthusiasm, hehe.” Seven sat down on the grass field and set the green wings and remote control beside him. “So you don’t have any work to do right now?”

“ _Not at the moment, I don’t. Buuuut that can always change in the blink of an eye, ya know?_ ”

“Yep! Sure do.” It was the downside of working for that agency. One minute, you’d be enjoying some free time, the next you’d have another mission suddenly thrust at you out of nowhere.

“We really are slave workers, aren’t we?” He remarked.

“ _That we are, my friend, that we are…_ ” Elle suddenly let out a few coughs, making Seven pause and wonder if she was catching something.

“Are you sick?” He asked.

“ _Eh, I think I got a minor cold but it’s no biggie._ ” Even when she tried passing it off as nothing, he found himself frowning.

“That coughing fit didn’t sound good, though. You’re taking care of yourself, right?” He blushed when she let out a snicker. Was he being too transparent?

“ _Are you worried? Haha, don’t be! I’m being a good girl, taking my vitamins and all that~_ ”

“You better be!” He teasingly chided. “Or else I’ll track you down and see for myself.”

“ _Ohoho! You would do that, really_?” Her excited tone made him go silent. Did she secretly want that, by any chance?

No no no. Seven facepalmed. He was making stupid assumptions. She was probably joking around like always. Besides, he had no way to track her location. Whether she had help or not, she was as good at hiding herself as he was.

“Err, well, of course you’d have to tell me where you live, but…” He doubted she would. Instead, Elle would probably say something like—

“ _No spoilers~_ ”

 _That_. Exactly that.

“Naww…t’was worth a try!” Was his recovery answer. Seven really wanted to know where she lived…come to think of it, that sounded kind of stalkerish.

“ _Maybe some day, who knows!_ ” Elle gave out a few more coughs. “ _Okay, I think I better get going. This coughing keeps coming back and I think I’m due for another dose of cough syrup._ ”

“Oh yeah, you better go then.” He agreed straight away. “Please take care of your health, okay?” He added in a softer tone.

“ _Mhm! I promise I will. Catch ya later, Fairy Boy._ ” He laughed.

“Later, Elle.” The phone call ended there.

Some might’ve taken that as an insult, but not Seven. After all, he made it too easy to be ridiculed with his cosplay pictures. The RFA members usually complained about how outlandish they were, except MC who recently joined and seemed totally fine—even supportive—of it. And then there was Elle… he relished more in the fact that she could make fun of it _with_ him, and not _at_ him. It never sounded cruel coming from her.

Standing up, he brushed some grass blades stuck to his pants and picked up his fairy wings. “Better get home and fix this.”

* * *

**Later that Night**

Having spent most of the day working on his wings and checking up on his research progress, Seven almost couldn’t believe it was near to 10 at night. He was presently taking part in another chatroom, and something that was said stood out to him…

MC just revealed that she took a walk in the gardens, and to him that was very telling. The genius hacker was slowly, _veeery_ slowly, collecting little pieces of information to make some sense of who she was and where she was.

 _‘It’s not a big clue, but it’s something.’_ He thought with a nod. He decided to put on his tactic of changing subjects to instead advertise one of his silly ideas; this time it was some kind of health insurance. He’d be lying if he didn’t admit these dumb promos were fun to do…even if it ticked off some of the members.

“Oh, V came on.” He observed. The mint-haired man was a lot more active since MC’s introduction. Seven mentioned how their average log-in rate had gone up. But V’s was…

707: But your log-in rate in particular skyrocketed

707: by 211%

And that revelation right there was telling. Indeed, V had been on chatrooms a lot more than usual, but it was a no brainer that it was because of MC and recent issues taking place. Curious though, that the RFA leader seemed to side with her a lot.

 _‘Just how much does he trust her?’_ Seven pondered, rubbing his chin.

A few texts later V logged off to call MC, so he decided to end the chat with his second advertisement of the Sevenstar Drink. Being bored with routine and a lack of progress, Seven had the tendency to come up with these small projects to occupy himself with. In the case of Sevenstar drink, everything was set up to commercialize it for real. All he had to do was hack into the convenience store servers and implant the order. Whether that really took off or not, was TBD. He wondered for a moment if Elle would be willing to try one…

He got pulled out of his wonderings when another tiny clue about MC emerged when promoting his product. She said there was someone there that needed it…was it someone she cared about? Just how many people resided at her location?

He wanted to push the subject, but decided not to in fear she might get overly suspicious and shy away, so instead they bid each other a goodnight and he exited the app. Leaning back on his chair, Seven’s mind once again went back to V. He thought the man was being too trusting of MC. Even if she seemed alright in the chatroom, they didn’t know if that was the real her or just someone pretending to be nice to gain their trust.

 _‘I think V should be more careful when it comes to MC._ ’ He thought about the hacking world and how cockroaches were dangerous creatures. What if she was one of those? The more he thought about it, the more anxious he felt. All the programs he’s been running weren’t giving him any leads. He couldn’t figure out MC’s identity, or the hacker’s for that matter. It was Elle all over again…

Except something’s changed in that regard. He didn’t _just_ see her as a suspicious agent anymore. They’ve talked, texted, laughed, shared snacks…he couldn’t go back to seeing her the way he used to. How could he? His heart felt warm and fuzzy just thinking about her.

Part of him still tried to subdue his developing feelings with doubts. Rational Seven told himself that Elle was still a mystery, and could be as dangerous as he was to people around him if they weren’t careful. In this profession, they lived in a world of darkness. No room for family, friends, or relationships. Vanderwood saw fit to constantly remind him of that, and it stuck pretty hard.

Seven sighed. That notion brought forth other things from his past, things he tried to push away and not think about too much. _‘In a perfect world, things would be completely different. We’d be together again, brother…I’d leave this shitty job, find something better to do—something cool, and maybe…maybe she would stay with me too.’_

But this wasn’t a perfect world. Saeran was probably living a much better life, anyway. He was safe…that’s what Rika and V promised. They said they’d keep him safe and happy. The golden haired woman was no longer, but he had to believe V still upheld that promise.

As for Elle…

A sudden urge overcame him. Seven picked up his phone and went into his contacts to select the girl’s name. Opening their text messages, his thumbs started to dance around, not quite sure where to start.

707: Wassup?

Eh, good enough. Leaning back, he waited.

And waited…

And waited…

25 minutes he sat there hoping for a response, but nothing.

 _‘Maybe she’s busy.’_ He figured, giving a shrug and putting his phone away to instead turn his attention to his monitors. He could see all the programs running at once. Several popups would open and close in a matter of seconds. Green bars. Red bars. Error and recalibration messages were a constant, along with strings of coding forming in the background. No ordinary individual would get what was going on. It was basically technological mayhem exploding into view.

 _‘God, this is taking so long.’_ For someone who had a record-breaking hacking in the agency, this was a disappointment. Drinking some PhD Pepper, Seven snatched his phone again. Nothing from Elle yet. He knew that, because there was no ‘ding’ or buzz to indicate it, but he still wanted to check…

 _‘I hope she’s okay. That cough…’_ She said it was a minor cold, but he knew that a minor cold could turn into a nasty flu if one wasn’t careful. He didn’t get sick often, but when he did it was a nightmare; everything tasted horrible, he was far more fatigued than usual, and his will to work shot down to 0%. Because of that, Vanderwood ~~unfortunately~~ had to nurse him back to health. His partner claimed he did it out of sense of duty and necessity, and because the agency needed Seven’s skills more than they cared to admit.

Shaking his head, he went into RFA messenger to check the settings and logs. Everything looked normal, but he wasn’t leaving that up to chance. He started running maintenance again, and while waiting for the results decided to pull up his orange headphones and listen to some music.

Seven often chose songs that had an energetic beat and a fun, catchy hook. Lively music helped keep him active and motivated. Then, there were mellow songs that relaxed him, such as the one playing right now. It was enough to have the redhead close his eyes and enjoy the smooth tempo.

His thoughts started drifting, and images based on fond memories materialized in his head. The first one was of young Saeran, smiling bright at him as the two ate ice cream together. The next one was similar, but instead of his brother it was Elle eating ice cream with him that one time. These memories were so pleasant and comforting, that Seven couldn’t help but drift further and further into them…

* * *

Waking up with a start, Seven’s eyes remained heavy in grogginess.

 _‘What time is it?’_ He thought, letting out a big yawn. The phone was grabbed, and after wincing at the screen brightness, he noted the present time was 2:27AM. Since sleep seemed like a luxury nowadays, he didn’t think much of it as it was only a few lost hours.

 _‘Oh, the maintenance.’_ He suddenly recalled. It should’ve finished by now, so he went ahead and checked up on that. The results came back all normal. Good.

He looked into the settings and chatroom logs next, and all seemed fine until he noticed something different…

“Wait a minute,” His eyes squinted. “A chatroom at 12:16AM, but…no one was in it?” That couldn’t be right. He checked it again and sure enough…there it was. An anomaly of a chatroom had been mysteriously generated, and because he was asleep—

“Shit.” How was that possible? Was it the hacker’s doing? Did they somehow manage to infiltrate the security system again? If this wasn’t a sign, he didn’t know what it was. Mind going into a frenzy, he quickly started another maintenance on the messenger, just to be sure. He monitored the rundown and nothing unusual was coming up. He checked the logs again and database next.

Everything. Looked. **NORMAL**. So why?

Beyond confused, Seven went ahead and created a chatroom. He needed to tell the others about this…

707:

He got an instant reply from MC...what was she doing up this late?

707: Hey

707: MC…

707: I’m running a maintenance on the messenger.

707: Just what is the problem?

707:

707: There’s no prob with the log…

707: database’s fine…

707: **No** **way…is my hard drive the problem?**

707: No…

707: Everything is fine…

707: **It’s fineeeeeee!!!!!!**

But it wasn’t fine. _He_ wasn’t fine. Freaking out inside, he tried not to let it get to him too much.

MC: Another hacking?

707: I think so…

But he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure of a lot of things, these days. His notoriety as a brilliant hacker was quickly going down the drain with how incompetent he felt right now. He wrote a few more posts before getting to the main concern.

707: There’s a chatroom that was created after midnight…

707: but no one actually logged in…?!

707:

MC: Past midnight..? Oh…

Oh?? His eyes bugged. That response right there made Seven reply frantically.

707: what?

707: u sound like you know something…!!!

707: **Did…something happen?**

 _‘Come on, come on. Give me something…!’_ He thought, desperately.

MC: You don’t wanna know –

“What?” What did she mean? Of course he wanted to know; he _needed_ to know!!

707: Don’t tell me…

707: Is this related to that hacker who introduced you…?

707:

707: If that’s the case, you should tell me! You must! T-T

Despite looking like he was just somewhat annoyed in the chatroom, in reality Seven was quite agitated by the fact this MC knew something he didn’t. Anything related to her and the hacker, whether it was two or one in the same, it was his job to figure things out. Judging by her previous response, though…

707: I should check the database query

707: let’s try comparing the last backup rotation time

707: and automatic server sync time…..

And Seven did exactly that. He wasn’t about to leave room for more errors.

“This is ridiculous. Why can’t I find any trace of a hacking?” It made him think for a second that perhaps it was something else. A virus maybe? But MC’s texts….

Going back to the chat, he saw Zen had logged in and exchanged a few messages with MC while he was busy looking into this damn midnight chatroom.

He greeted the actor, but the prospect of a bug in the messenger had Zen pushing Seven to fix it. Fix it?

**HE WAS TRYING, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE!**

707:

707: But honestly

707: The very fact that MC entered our chatroom

707: is a huge trouble in the first place ^^

And that was no joke….but _maaaybe_ he should’ve worded that differently, because now MC was acting guilty and Zen was bitching at him for it.

707:

707: I’m still running security upgrades!

ZEN: I’m not sure what that upgrade is

ZEN: but you’re saying that you’re working hard, right?

Seven ultimately sighed. He couldn’t blame the guy for doubting. His unmatched skills were being tested like never before. No results meant a decline in trust from the members.

707: I’ve put aside my main job for that

707: so now I even have someone watching me T-T

Well, not at the moment. Vanderwood was MIA for a few days, but it was only a matter of time before he came knocking on his door about another job to do…

But like it or not, Vanderwood was damn good at cleaning his house. He even admitted in the chatroom. Guy had mad skills, yo.

ZEN: Listen, I know you’re going through a lot

No shit?

ZEN: so make sure the messenger isn’t hacked!

707: ok…T-T

ZEN: You have no idea how many of my beautiful selfies are in the messenger

ZEN: **and all of them are now for display!**

Seven about facepalmed. Zen was notorious for being the big narcissist of the group. But not like he helped the matter. Seven usually condoned that type of behavior, and even encouraged it to a certain extent with little comments like, ‘are we gonna have ‘Zenism’ as a new religion?’

The conversation took on a much lighter note from that point. These little distractions helped him calm down a bit. Seven knew there problems that needed fixing. He knew that. Just…he couldn’t go about righting wrongs while having a meltdown.

ZEN: Last night Jaehee said that she ran into some weird religion

ZEN: didn’t she?

707: Religion, huh…?

707: You can’t talk about religion

707: **without talking about God7**

ZEN: What do you mean, God7?;;;

ZEN: You think this is Game of Kings?

Seven smirked. Zen brought up the perfect opportunity for him to share another of his _amazing_ photos, and MC only fueled him with her play-along.

707: Tis I…!

707: The illegitimate son of Is Tony Clark

707: **the Father of Dragon…!**

ZEN: ……..

ZEN: What are you saying?

707:

ZEN:

MC: That’s lit…

Yup. Totally lit. The corners of his mouth curled up into a huge grin.

ZEN: Just why would you make this?!

707: It’s a bomb to scatter my enemies

707: I’ll regularly come up with new ones with new concepts and fire them one by one lol

ZEN:

ZEN: You’ll use that as a bomb?

707: gotta confuse my enemies

ZEN:

MC asked him if he had made that himself. The getup was all him, but the agency’s strategy department had to take the credit for the backdrop, editing, and whatever else he forgot they did. Zen seemed annoyed about the topic, and too bad for him ‘cause Seven was having a blast annoying the actor with it. A little payback for getting all riled up on him.

 _‘Nuisance Unleashed!!!’_ He rallied in his head.

Their convo dragged on for a bit, until Zen started talking about a party guest that was connected to a chicken place he really liked. Chicken…just thinking about it made his stomach rumble.

“Aw man, I’m hungry now…” Seven looked at the empty back of Honey Buddha chips on his desk. “…I’m hungry for fried chicken.”

Without thinking, he texted Elle.

707: I know you’re prob busy T-T

707: But I just wanted to let you know

707: That I’m super hungry for Burning Chickens soybean sauce chicken lol

707: Just thought I’d share this super important info with you, lololol

707: ….

707: Hope you’re feeling better ^^

 _Lame_. Why did he send her all those dumb texts? He had no grip on himself when it came to Elle. Was this what it felt like to be a schoolboy with a crush on his classmate?

Shaking his head, he went back to the RFA chat. MC agreed to invite the pretty boy worker from the Burning Chicken, which was awesome because Seven really wanted to meet him and see for himself if Zen was serious about the boy being as good looking as he was. Also, maybe he could get a discount on the place? Or better yet... ** _GET FREE FRIED WINGS!_**

707: Btw when are you gonna sleep MC?

MC: I will go to bed…sooner or later…

ZEN:

ZEN: Are you going to bed too?

707: No

707: **I just felt like saying good night**

ZEN: Huh? What are you talking about?

MC: Are you going to say good night to me?

707: Oh, good night, Melinda…

707: hehe

ZEN:

707: my sweet little Elly - ♡

707: have a good night -

Zen instantly reacted with a sneeze and an angry emoji, to which he laughed almost sadistically. It was so easy getting to him when talking about Jumin’s cat. The weird part was, for a brief moment, he didn’t think about the white, furry cat. Instead, he thought about someone else with a similar name…

With Zen leaving the chat, Seven figured it was high time he went back work he’s been putting off for the sake of his sanity.

707: Now I should get to my senses

707: and go recover the data.

707:

MC: You have a lot to work on T-T

Indeed he had. At least she recognized it, and he was glad at least _someone_ did. If it wasn’t for the agency running him ragged…and Vanderwood kept bugging him about that Game of Kings thing…

707: **whaaaaa**

The second he typed that, he heard a booming voice coming from the front of his house.

“ **SEVEN!!!”**

The readhead jumped in surprise. Shit, Madam Vanderwood!!

707:

707: scream for the devil!!

707: My housemaid’s calling me

707: as soon as I said that!

707: gotta go too!!!

MC: Tell your housemaid I said hi!

Even if he did, Vanderwood wouldn't be the least bit interested in getting a ‘hi’ from a stranger. He'd likely complain about Seven talking about him to others, risking his identity and blah, blah, blah.

Bidding MC a quick bye, Seven got up and turned to see Vanderwood stomping up the steps to where he was.

“Madam Vanderwood! What brings you to my humble home at this hour?” He questioned. The guy looked pissed right now, so he had to tread carefully…

Vanderwood glared. “What brings me here? It’s because of you! The first deadline for Game of Kings mission is over! Where’s your submission?”

Oh. That.

Seven gulped and gave the angry agent a sheepish smile. “Uh, the thing is…I already submitted it in my head. I simply haven’t worked on it in reality.”

“Are you kidding me?” His hissed, “You’d better spill it unless you want me to drag you back with me. Get to work right now!”

Damnit. Just his luck. When things needed fixing asap, more obstacles showed up to get in his way.

Seven sighed. “Listen, Vanderwood.”

“What?” Said agent snapped.

 _‘I need to think of something to distract him.’_ The redhead thought, trying to come up with a quick and viable topic to steer the man’s attention from his lack of commitment to the agency work.

“Doesn’t your name sound too delicate? Vanderwood.Vanderwood.”

“If you’re gonna ask me something, can’t you do it while your fingers are moving…?” He questioned, heaving a sigh. “But why are you asking that out of the blue?”

“No…it’s just that I always wanted to ask.” His put on his best fake-genuine look of intrigue. “It’s too fancy for an agent’s code name. That’s not your real name, is it? Please tell me that’s not your real name.”

Vanderwood’s eye twitched. “You think this is really my birth name? And what, an agent can’t have a fancy code name? My job has nothing to do with my name in the first place.” He huffed in response.

Seven smiled. _Perfect_. He had him hooked on the topic.

“Come on, there’s no way that’s the case. I’m sure you had a name you wanted people to call you with.”

The man went a little stiff. “No, I don’t…” He grumbled.

“Oh! Your face changed just now. What? What is it? From now on I’ll call you that if you tell me what it is.” Seven assured. He could tell that Vanderwood was getting a little flustered now.

“Ah, forget it. It’s a name used for my job. Who cares?”

“You sure you don’t care what name I call you with? Then how about Francis?” That earned him another glare.

“Don’t make me murder you…” Okay. He definitely didn’t what _that_ to happen, so he rambled on to buy himself more time.

“You don’t like Francis? Then how about Edward? Or how about something different, like Bella?”

“That’s enough…” Vanderwood sounded like he was struggling to keep his voice low.

Despite feeling semi-terrified, Seven grinned. “Vanderwood is the best, isn’t it? Vanderwood! Vanderwood!” The agent’s expression contorted into a mix between bafflement and disgust.

“Oh! Your face is getting worse every time I call your name!” He pointed out. “I knew you didn’t like it! So you’ve been using it when you don’t want to?”

“Ugh, that’s not true!” Vanderwood objected.

“If you don’t like your name, just tell the truth!” He started chanting his code name next, “Vanderwood! Vanderwood! Vanderwood!”

That about did it. Getting under the man’s skin, he about threw his hands up in defeat.

“Ah, fine! No, I don’t like it! **I hate it!!!”**

“Then what name would you like, Miss Francis?” He expected to get yelled at for calling him that, but that didn’t happen this time.

“Haaa…” Vanderwood looked concentrated now. “……Stark.”

“Stark?” Seven repeated, “Why?”

“It sounds cool.” Was his response. Seven rubbed his chin in wonder.

“…Isn’t that Niron Man’s birth n—“

“What’s that?” Vanderwood ask, straight-faced.

“No, no. Nothing.” Seven laughed nervously for some reason. “Alright. I’ll remember that. Anything else other than Stark? Don’t you have a second-most-wanted name?”

“Second? Never thought about it….Hmm….” The agent stared up at the ceiling in thought. That was Seven’s window of opportunity.

“While you’re trying to come up with one, I’ll go for a drive, Miss Francis Stark.” Not waiting around for the man’s inevitable protest, the boy booked out of there.

“…Fine…What? Hey! Where are you going?!” Vanderwood shouted a moment too late, for Seven was already out the door.

“ _Phew!_ Almost didn’t make it.” The genius hacker remarked, getting down to the garage and picking the the closest of his cars to get into. He wasted no time in turning the engine and driving off the lot.

Seven needed to clear his head for a while. Too many things were happening right now, and his head felt like it was a tick away from exploding. So much responsibility rested on his shoulders, the pressure and the stress were almost too overwhelming.

His phone rang a couple times, but he chose to ignore it for now.

 _‘This sucks. My research and tracking are coming up zilch; the members are questioning my skills; my partner and boss are constantly on my ass about agency work…what’s next?’_ He thought, exasperated.

He drove for at least 20 minutes before parking near a community lot to get off and walk around for a bit. It was in the middle of the night, so the place was devoid of any humans, which was perfect because he wanted complete isolation right now.

Hands stuffed in his pockets, a soft breeze that passed through, ruffling his red hair. It was gentle and calming, and he inhaled a deep breath of it.

 _‘This is nice.’_ He thought, but his serenity was interrupted by a series of buzzing noises coming from his phone. Pulling it out, he saw that they were texts from Elle.

Elle: Hey Seven! Sorry I didn’t replay back ‘til now. You were right, I just finished my work T-T ugh;;

Elle: You like their fried chicken? I heard it’s pretty good! If you haven’t already, you should get some for lunch or dinner next time!

Elle: And fear not! I’m on the road to recovery ;)

Her words, even in the standard text form, made him smile in content. This girl had no clue what she was doing to him. Seven decided to reply right back.

707: lolol they’re really good! But it’s late now and they’re closed T-T

707: why can’t they stay open 24/7? That would be great for the night owl customers with the munchies! lolol

707: I’m glad you’re getting better, too!

Didn’t take long for her to text back this time.

Elle: Ooh, there’s an idea! That would be super good for their business +_+

Elle: and maybe they could get more help and supplies if their profits increase like that

Elle: And thanks for worrying ♡ my health will be back to 100% in no time!

Good, good….Seven debated on whether to write what he was thinking of next. Would it sound too rude…?

707: Hey Elle…I know it’s late, but can I call you right now?

Elle: Call me? Uhm, ok sure! Gimme a sec.

707: Okie

Glad she didn’t decline, Seven waited. But what kind of job did she have that went until late at night? He wondered…

He was surprised to feel his phone ring with an incoming call. Apparently, Elle chose to call him instead of the other way around.

“Hey!” He answered, “I thought _I_ was gonna call you.”

“ _Hahah I know, but I got too excited so I did it instead_.” Excited? Once again, she got his heart thumping fast.

“O-Oh? You can be excited at this time of night?” He joked, but that was the pot calling the kettle black. He felt much the same right now.

“ _I can’t help it. I had like, three energy drinks to keep myself awake through the job and now I’m all hyper!_ ” Her response had him laughing. She sure sounded hyper. But three energy drinks? That was almost as bad as him with PhD Pepper—no scratch that; his habit was definitely the worst.

“So you’re not going to bed anytime soon, huh?”

“ _Nope! I probably will crash in the late morning. But that’s okay ‘cause I got the next day off. Woohoo!_ ”

He gaped. She had the day off? Oh, how jealous he was right now…

“Aw no fair! I want a day off…” He grumbled, with a pout and a childish kick to the ground.

“ _Aww…but didn’t you mention you might take some days off soon? Why not use up one day sooner?_ ” Elle suggested.

Well…it wasn’t a bad idea if it wasn’t for the fact that he couldn’t just disappear for a day when there was always something strange happening with the RFA messenger. Problems needed solving, and at the same time he had to pacify his partner and boss on his lack of dedication towards his job.

“I wish, but I’m at a bad place at work right now…boss and Madam Vanderwood aren’t too happy with my slow work progress.” He confessed with a sigh.

“ _Oh…sorry to hear that. Sometimes we hit a snag, but I’m sure you can come back on top. I believe in you!_ ” She cheered.

“Haha, thanks.” Seven really needed to hear that. Really.

 “Hey, I’m taking a walk right now at a park. Uhm…do you…maybe wanna meet me—if you’re close by?” He stumbled out the suggestion.

“ _What park?_ ” She asked. “ _Can you send me the coordinates?_ ”

“Sure.” He took a sec to send her the coordinates of the location through text.

“ _Ahh, I know where that is. I can make it. It’s pretty close to where I’m at._ ”

Seven paused, blinking at how fast she had agreed. “Really? Are you sure?”

“Yep! See you in a few?”

“Yep!” With that, Elle hung up.

He stared down at his phone for a minute. She was coming to meet him…in the middle of the night. Was that crazy?

“Oh boy…” He suddenly felt his palms sweating. What should he do? Stay where he was? Keep walking? Pick a rendezvous point? Seven groaned for not thinking through this. It was a spur of the moment offer! Being so late, he wasn’t even expecting her to accept.

 _‘But this is Elle. She’s too unpredictable still.’_ He thought. Looking around, he found a bench near a lamppost and walked over to sit on it. He decided to just wait there. Quietly.

…

…

Not even two minutes later, he started texting her.

707: Hey, I’m on a bench not far from the coordinates I gave u, just FYI lolol

He left it at that. How far was she from him? She said it was pretty close, but how close was that for her? Five or twenty minutes away? Seven shook his head. He just had to trust that Elle would find him. If she got lost, she could text back or call him.

“Seven!” 10 minutes later, he heard his name called. Looking up, he saw Elle approaching from the left side of the pathway, waving at him.

He waved back with a grin. When she got closer, the light from the post had him noticing her red cheeks. She instantly sat down beside him, letting out a sigh.

“Hey, you okay? You look flushed…” He carefully pointed out.

“Huh? Oh yeah! I just sorta…ran here, kinda.” She excused with a wave of her hand.

“Oh, okay.” Seven decided to let the matter go. She was here, with him, in the middle of the night. It felt a little surreal, to be honest.

“So…three energy drinks, huh?”

“Mhm. It was a pretty mind-straining task. I had to look at _sooo_ many surveillance videos…” She said, tucking away some strands of hair that were on her face.

“Really?” Seven was officially intrigued. “That’s a pretty specific task. Why look at surveillance videos?”

Elle shrugged. “I just needed to find some concrete proof of a person doing something shady.” That vague explanation was probably all she could tell him. Sharing mission objectives was not something they did at the agency. Each one was specifically tailored to an agent, and unless they had a constant partner like Seven, they weren’t supposed to chit chat about it with other co-workers for fear of a potential leakage.

“So did you find something?” He pressed on.

“Yep. Took almost three whole days to do it, but I finally got something…” The girl hugged her arms and leaned back on the seat. “So what made you come here to walk at almost four in the morning?”

“Oh, well…” He rubbed the back of his head. “I needed a break from the Madam. He kept yelling and telling me to get to work...I felt pretty suffocated.” And really, he was. Vanderwood might’ve not been the sole reason for Seven feeling that way, but it was pieces of this and that that just made it all too much that he had to get out for a while.

“I get it. Sometimes work can be a little too overwhelming,” She said with a sympathetic nod. “And to have someone naggin’ at you all the time? It just makes you feel less motivated to get things done.”

She got him. She really did. No matter if she didn’t have all the facts; whatever Elle’s position was in the agency, he was glad the girl could relate to him that way.

“You know,” He started, eyes veered to the side. “You’re about the only person I could talk to about this.”

It was true. The RFA didn’t know what his profession entailed—not even V knew the full extent—and he kept it that way for safety reasons. And Vanderwood, no matter if he knew, was the _last_ person Seven wanted to talk to about his problems. Elle could at least recognize the sacrifices he made. His life as a hacker seemed forever chained to darkness…

Elle smiled, closing her eyes to rest them for a moment. “Yeah? Well everyone’s gotta have someone they can vent to about stuff, right?”

She was right. So right…

“…Elle?”

“Hm?”                                                                                               

“…” _Screw this._

Seven leaned over…letting his lips fall on hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy St. Patty's Day! Hope you guys enjoyed this <3 I know it's longer than usual, but that's because condensing stuff from route days is a greater pain in the ass challenge than I thought it would be ;-; waaaahhh...
> 
> Anywho! I hope the ending makes up for some of the unnecessary content in this chapter XD


	11. When the going gets tough...

Seven didn’t know what the hell got into him. One minute he was sitting beside Elle, the next he had his lips smack down on hers. And when her eyes shot open in total surprise, that look was enough to make the redhead panic and pull back fast.

“I’m…I’m s-sorry…!” He stuttered apologetically, not knowing what else to say. Being totally thrown off by his own impulsive behavior, Seven felt like an embarrassed fool as he turned away. Why did he do that?

“Um,” Elle began, not even sure how to process what just happened. “I-It’s okay...”

Was it, though? She didn’t sound convincing enough to Seven. In his head, he had severely overstepped her boundaries and made the girl upset.  Honestly, what on earth possessed him to just kiss her like that?

Hearing movement, he turned his head to see Elle stand up, staring awkwardly to the side as she clutched the strap of her purse.

“I should probably go.” She said.

So he _did_ upset her. He must have for her to want to leave like that. It made him feel ten times worse than before and taking a stand himself, he frowned in shame.

“I don’t know what got into me, Elle. You have every right to be angry but please…please don’t hate me for it.” He pleaded. Seven couldn’t stand to have her hate him.

“Hate you?” Turning to look at him, she blinked. “Why would I hate you? You caught me by surprise, is all.”

There was a pause of silence. Seven was as dumbfounded as he was relieved to hear that. “Are you sure? you’re not upset that I did that? I’m so sorry, I’m an idiot.” He blabbed on. It was almost like he was stuck on repeat. Maybe if he apologized enough, the current awkwardness would disappear like magic.

Elle stayed quiet for a moment. Then, she chuckled with a shake of her head. “You’re cute when you get all nervous, you know that?”

And that kind of comment was the last thing he expected to hear. It had his face going from pale to red in a split second. What the hell? He was so confused right now…

“Look, Seven, you were stressed out about work and got caught up in the moment. It’s okay, I get that.” Elle reached over to take his shoulder in a comforting grip. “I promise you I’m not upset.”

He stared. The explanation was sound, and it made him consider the facts. Was that really what happened? Did he act without thinking because everything in his life felt like a mess right now? Elle was presently the only one offering him comfort and support, so maybe…maybe that sparked something.

“O-Oh. Yeah…yeah that’s it.” He rubbed his neck. Seven was hesitant to agree at first, but right now he had to because it seemed to be the only reason she was letting this incident go. He couldn’t have her sour with him, not when things were already so complicated. He needed her lively attitude on his side if things got worse, and they very well could…

“Mhm! So don’t worry about it. No harm done, kay?” The boy nodded, numbly. Right. No harm done…

“Good. Now…make sure you get some rest. Your brain’s probably going haywire because you don’t get enough sleep. I should do the same after those energy drinks. I can already feel the starting effects of the crash.” She released her hold on him.

“Yeah…you’re right.” He sighed. Her words were sensible. Seven had been cooped up in his bunker for the past couple of days, overworking himself with the messenger hacking, the background search on MC, and the jobs for the agency. Even if he was the genius **707 Extreme** , he was a human with limits of his own. Besides, he didn’t want to keep her there for his sake. That would be super selfish.

“I am,” Was the cheeky response he got, along with a grin that made his heart soar still. “I’ll keep in touch.”

Elle walked off, leaving Seven to stare after her. The minute she disappeared from his line of view, he turned away and heaved another sigh. _‘Luciel, you’re such an idiot…but a lucky idiot ‘cause she didn’t freak out on you when she had every right to.’_

He still couldn’t believe how level-headed she was about him planting one on her. It got him thinking that maybe, _just_ maybe, she felt something…maybe.

Seven stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked to his car, debating whether to head back to the house or just wait awhile longer. Vanderwood could still be there, and the last thing he wanted was to face up to the scolding and taser threats that would undoubtedly come his way.

 _‘Maybe I’ll just snooze in the car.’_ He thought, recalling Elle’s advice. A nap sounded really good right now, especially since he desperately needed to shut off his brain and forget life’s struggles, at least for a few hours. Getting in his car, Seven locked the doors and rolled the seat back to lie down. With a soft exhale, he pulled up his orange headphones and took out his phone to choose a song.

“Hm?” There was a missed call from V, probably the call he chose to ignore when he was driving. Seven groaned. _‘Damn.’_ Should he call back now? He was so not in the right headspace for it…

“I’ll call later.” He much rather do that with a clear mind than to risk snapping at V for all the pressure that was put on him lately. Flipping over to his music app, he picked a song and closed his eyes.

Try as he might to keep his head blank, flashbacks of that kiss kept mercilessly popping up. Brief as it was he could still recall the softness of her lips and the sweet, lingering taste of them. She probably had some kind of dessert or candy before meeting up with him. But what made him feel anxious was her response. Yes, Elle had been understanding and kind about his momentary lapse of judgment, and he was grateful for that… but then, why did part of him feel disappointed?

 _‘Her reaction was….I don’t even know what she really thought about it.’_ Her words had nothing to do with her feelings. It sounded like she was just being logical and sympathetic to a friend…but was that all he was to her? A friend?

 _‘Go to sleep, brain.’_ He ordered with a grunt. Such thoughts should’ve never come to mind in the first place. Because of his profession, his chaotic life and painful past, Seven kept people at arm’s length. He couldn’t let anyone get too close to him in fear of putting them in danger. He was well aware of that.

Yet here he was, wishing Elle could’ve said how she truly felt about him. Maybe if he heard her reject him, it would put him out of his lovesick misery. His brows creased into a slight frown. Was that really what he wanted? For her to reject him? His logic said yes, but his heart sung the complete opposite. These conflicting emotions were getting harder and harder to manage. At some point, he was going to snap for real.

But for now these wonderings seized as the slow beat of the song progressed, and the hacker was lulled into a deep sleep.

* * *

Seven jumped into a sit, hitting his head on the roof of the car with a hissing wince. “Ugh…” He rubbed his head while looking on his phone at the time. It was almost three in the afternoon.

“What the?!” He had slept for _ten hours_ straight! How the hell did that happen? Rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing wrong, Seven pulled up his seat and buckled up to drive back home.

 _‘How in the world did I sleep that long?’_ Had he pushed himself too hard? These last couple days were no picnic, so maybe all that rendered him mentally exhausted. That was the only sound explanation he came up with.

‘ _Madam must’ve left by now.’_ With any luck, Seven could slip back into the safehouse and continue his work. But he had to admit, those hours of sleep did wonders on him. He felt well-rested, and his head was clearer and better prepared to face his duties ahead.

Getting back home took some twenty minutes, and the first thing the young hacker did was check for any sign of Vanderwood. When he deemed the coast clear, he breathed a sigh of relief. He got as far as his workstation before remembering he had a missed call from V.

 _‘Damnit.’_ Irritably scratching his face, he got his phone out and pressed on the voicemail left. Basically, V told him to send the files he complied to the RFA leader’s via email, and was told not to worry about MC, that he would handle her.

“V…your message is…haaa…” No matter if the mint-haired photographer kept saying MC was trustworthy, Seven did _not_ have a good feeling about this. He’s gotten nothing concrete, except little hints that could only be stipulated on. Why did V insist on having them trust her? Not to mention the trace of infiltration at midnight that still bewildered him, and the fact he hadn’t been able to find anything about the hacker that brought MC into the chatroom was just…

“….Huh?” He stared down at the screen. “It’s Madam Vanderwood. What’s she doing in the messenger?”

There was no time to deal with him. Seven quickly used a proxy to hide himself from Vanderwood and buy him a couple minutes.

“I should also lock my door, just in case—” The little _ding dong_ sound of an email received reached his ears.

“Don’t tell me Madam Vanderwood found out about this?” That wouldn’t be good. He’d be in deep shit if Vanderwood found out what he was doing in place of working on agency stuff. Accessing his inbox, he selected the unread email. “Who is this? Not many people know about this account.”

The sender’s name confused him even more. “Sent by…Unknown.” He scrolled through the contents. “It’s…a newspaper article.” He read on.

Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit. 700000000 x SHIT

What in god’s name was going on? As Seven’s wild eyes went through the _entire_ email, his heart was racing 100 miles per second and his body started to feel numb.

“Prime Minister…Prime Minister…” Those very words sent chills down his spine. “Who is this…? Just who in the world would know about me…?” No. Not just him…

 _‘Saeran.’_ Seven swallowed thickly. No. He couldn’t get dragged into this. No way. Slumping down on his chair, the redhead stared at the words that could very well spell doom for him and his twin brother.

‘ _Who is this Unknown? Why would they send this to me?’_ He thought, bending down and gripping his red hair in distress. Just when he thought things couldn’t get worse…

“Alright, calm down.” He tried coaxing himself, taking in some deep breath and straightening himself up. He had to think through this carefully. It wasn’t just his life on the line.

“Think. Who would know about this?” Aside from Saeran, his mind formulated two other people: Rika and V. The golden-haired woman was obviously out of the question, so…did V send this to him by any chance?

“Or maybe…” The agency? Vanderwood? They knew about it, but they had a deal. In working as one of their informants, they in turn helped keep his identity hidden…what purpose would they even have in sending him this? Even if he’s been slacking off lately, Seven was still their top hacker and there was no reason to deal him such a low blow threat.

This was crazy. Being totally blind sighted by the email, he was not equipped to deal with this properly. Seven was even more distressed than before, and the only thing he could think of to comfort him in that moment was Elle. He even came to open their shared text messages, about to send one when he stopped himself.

 _‘I can’t text her about this.’_ And not just because she didn’t know Seven’s past. Earlier that morning, that kiss, he still felt embarrassed and guilty about his immoral conduct. Didn’t matter that he always joked around and made things sound ridiculous and inappropriate; didn’t matter that he had no ill-intention with it. The second he stole that kiss from Elle, he lost all nerve and confidence regarding her.

It was a moment that weighed heavy on his mind, so much so he couldn’t bring himself to go to her with his personal torment, seeking solace and support. He shouldn’t anyway. She didn’t deserve getting bombarded by all the insane things going through his head right now. It wasn’t fair.

“V…I have to ask V.” That was his only viable option. Seven hoped to god he would know something about this—even possibly offer reassurance. He dialed V’s number, but he didn’t pick up.

Seven dialed again. And again. And again. And once more for good measure. He wasn’t answering.

“What are you doing, V?” He mumbled. If the man’s recent behavior was any indication, and his suspicions were right, it probably had something to do with MC. Seven still couldn’t believe how persistent he was with wanting them to trust her. Why? He had to know more than he was leading on.

Several failed calls put the hacker into a period of anguish as he paced back and forth in his home. It wasn’t until awhile later that Seven saw V in the messenger, and tried to get a hold of him through there.

707: **V!**

707: **Why aren’t you picking up?**

V: Luciel…perfect time.

V: I think there’s something wrong with the signal right now…

MC: Welcome, Seven!!

707: Oh…you’re here, Melinda.

707: I came to talk to V.

Not that he was trying to be rude, but this was an urgent matter and he didn’t have to time to be his joking self. He needed to know if V was aware of this email.

V: You logged in because I didn’t pick up

707: **yep. V!**

707: **Did you send an email by any chance? =**

V: No.

The reassurance he so desperately wanted to have went down the drain with that answer. But he had to make _absolute_ of it.

707: ….

707: **u sure u didn’t?**

V: I did call you a few hours ago…and I left a voicemail.

707: I know. I checked it.

707: But that’s not what I’m talking about…

707: **I received some strange email…**

MC: What emails?

707: An email that shows something that only V and I know…

V: What?

707: if it’s not u then who is it?

707: Who could’ve sent it to me?

707: I’m sure this person knew about me and sent it…

V: Luciel.

V: Just calm down, and listen to me…

V: Could you forward that email to me?

707: so it’s not really u?

V: No, I’m not…

707: …Alright.

707: I’ll send it now.

707: When can we talk?

707: I think we should talk about this over the phone…

V: Agreed;;

V: I’ll try moving to another place.

707: how come messenger works but not ur phone..?

V: Yes.

V: There’s no problem with the Internet…

707: Is there something wrong with the base station…?

MC: Umm…maybe it will work a few minutes later.

What’s _that_ supposed to mean? The redhead frowned at the message. Was MC withholding something from them? No matter how much V wanted them to trust her, he still had this weird feeling like something wasn’t right…

V: I’m about to move and try calling again.

707: **Did somebody mess with our phones on pur…**

707: wait…no…

V: That’s not out priority here. Let’s talk later.

707: ok…

Sighing, Seven switched over to his email and forwarded the disturbing article over to V.

707: V, I sent the email!

V: I’ll check it out…

707: ok…

707: ….

He waited on pins and needles for the older guy to see it. What would he think? Would he be just as shocked as he was?

MC: I hope it’s nothing bad…

707: haa…I wish.

707: But there’s no denying.

707: This person did this on purpose to attack me.

V: **My god…**

So he saw it. What now? He needed to talk to V ASAP, but apparently his present location wasn’t letting him take calls. To him, that was very weird…was V in some kind of desolate region with a weak signal?

707: Ikr??

707: Just who would send this?

707: Any suspect?

V: …none.

707: this person knows all about my identity….

MC: I hope nothing bad happens to you, Seven…

 _‘Forget about me. What about Saeran?’_ He thought to himself. No matter what, he just wanted to make sure his little brother wouldn’t get caught in this mess of a past coming back to haunt them.

V: I hope so…

V: I can’t imagine how shocked you were to read this…

707: …Ithought my heart would explode…

707: Who could it be?

707: Is this one of the informants?

707: No, they don’t do it like this. Who could it be…?

707: Is it somebody who hates me?

707: But if this is somebody who hates me, just where did this person get this info?

707 **: I’m sure**

707: **only V and I know this…!**

V: Luciel, I know how shocked you are but first, calm down…

707: V

707: you’ve read the email

707: **how am I supposed to calm down?!**

V: Yes, I understand.

“No, you don’t.” He snapped, as if the man could hear him on the other end. V couldn’t possibly understand how he felt right now. Seven was spiraling. All those frantic messages were a product of his inner paranoia rearing its head; the more he thought about this, the more anxious he got to figure out who the hell sent him that email. Whoever it was, they wanted to hurt him. Hurt him _bad_.

V proposed they talk later over the phone, saying he’d go somewhere with better signal. But even that didn’t help ease Seven’s mind. Since he was now 100% sure the mint-haired man wasn’t the one who sent that article…

Once again the RFA leader tried to calm him down, saying he was going to take care of it , but the young hacker didn’t know if he believed that. He felt so useless, and the way he conducted himself in the messenger was pathetic. He couldn’t even get a grip on his emotions in there.

707: Is it possible to find out who did this?

V: We will. Eventually.

707: but right now i can’t even catch a glimpse of the hacker

707: related to MC…

707: Can I…really do that?

Seven was incapable of coming up with anything useful about her or the hacker who brought her to the messenger. What started out as a fun—yet still risky—challenge, had exploded into a problematic crisis that kept expanding in proportion.

MC: I shouldn’t have come here…I think I’ve only pressured Seven…

V: MC…

V: can we please talk about this later?

707: **MC**

He had to give it a shot. If she knew something that could help this, _ANY_ of this, he had to try and convince her to spill.

707: can u please tell us?

707: Who is this hacker behind you…?

V: Luciel

V: I thought you agreed to trust me and leave this to me.

707: V…

A long sigh passed his lips. He did say that, but…it wasn’t so easy. Was he a bad friend for doubting V’s judgment?

707: **can I really beat this hacker?**

V: Luciel

V: you are a phenomenal genius…

V: You know how talented you are.

V: Better than anyone else.

V: Have confidence in yourself. Alright?

Could he really do that? It felt like his talents were being sucked out of him with every failed attempts…

707: but now…

707: i’m not sure…

707: I can’t help thinking that somebody searched for my background…

V: ….

707: But I’m sure background check on me will give nothing in return.

And wasn’t that the bitterest of ironies…he was so meticulous about hiding his personal information, the kind that really mattered, and here he was wracking his brain over not getting a clue on MC, the hacker, and this…this mystery ‘Unknown.’ Just what kind of cyber mastermind was behind all this?

707: i made double and triple protections on my info…

Who could it be…? Who could know everything about his past like that without—

Seven’s eyes widened. No…

V: Luciel?

707: Is it him?!

V: Him?

707: If it’s not u, and if it’s not me

707: **then he’s the only one…**

No. No it couldn’t be. Not him. Seven refused to believe that he had anything to do with this.

797: But there’s no way it’s him…!

707: That’s…impossible.

707: **Is it, V?**

 _‘Tell me it’s not true, V. Tell me it isn’t…_ ’ He begged in his mind.

V asked if he took the email apart, and of course he did. That was the very next thing he did when he couldn’t get a hold of V with the phone calls. But nothing was gained from it. It was totally clean.

707: I don’t know who did it, but this guy deliberately did this…

707: **MC**

707: That hacker related to you

707: is not related to this, is he?

MC: No.

 _Bullshit_. He didn’t buy that for a second. Seven’s mind was filled with all sorts of conspiracies and suspicions, and MC was not helping the case at all by being evasive and…and…

707: …I’m not sure if I can trust that.

707: How can I trust you

707: when you don’t even know where you are?

707: If you have any evidence that you’re innocent

707: **can you show us?**

V: ….Luciel

V: you promised to entrust me with anything related to MC.

707: **How am I supposed to do that right now?!**

The RFA leader immediately came to her defense. As surprising as it was the first time, it wasn’t anymore. He was upset with V for being so trusting of a stranger they knew _nothing_ about. How in the hell did V come to trust her so much? Trust her over _him_?

V: Please…

V: Luciel, trust me.

707: V…

V: **Could you give me an hour?**

An hour? Seven felt like pulling his hair out. He _wanted_ to trust him. He _wanted_ to just toss away his suspicions and blindly go with whatever he wanted. Rika’s fiancé, who alongside her did so much for him and Saeran…but it was in his hacker nature to doubt, to question, and to find answers. With every passing day, V’s secrets seemed to get bigger and bigger.

“Fine…fine.” He caved. His head and heart hurt enough as it was without needing to drive a wedge between him and his friend. An hour….he should at least give V that much.

707: I’ll be waiting…

He exited the chatroom.

For the next 45 minutes, Seven mulled over what he and V were going to talk about. Obviously this was bad. Someone knew about his past and tried to threaten him or something. What for? Who sent it? Was he being targeted for some reason? Was it a competitor of the agency? A rogue hacker? Several conspiracy theories swam in his head, only to be brought to a halt by his phone buzzing.

 _‘V!’_ It hadn’t been an hour yet, but he didn’t care. Seven quickly picked up the phone—but it wasn’t V calling…

“Elle?” He mumbled, surprised to see her caller ID on the screen. What should he do? V would be calling at any moment.

 _‘I gotta wait for that call. It’s too important…’_ Thought the guy answering the girl’s call anyway. In that moment he realized he was helplessly weak for her. Or maybe he just needed to hear her voice. Maybe it would help put him a little at ease.

“H-Hey.” Seven answered, mentally cursing himself for stammering like that. Clearing his throat, he continued, “What’s up?”

“ _Hey! I just wanted check up on ya and make sure we were still cool…?_ ”

“Oh, Yeah yeah! We cool, we cool.” He reassured right away. Seven didn’t want her thinking it was awkward between them, even though it was.

A sigh of relief was heard. “ _Oh good. When I got home I started getting worried that you might think we weren’t cool ‘cause I left so quick. I hope you didn’t take that the wrong way. I’m not upset about what happened._ ”

Oh god. Hearing her say that brought him flashbacks of it. Pleasant as it was, the timing was off and he shouldn’t be thinking about such things right now. He was having a crisis, wasn’t he?

“You say you’re not upset, but…what did you feel?” Seven froze. Shit. The question left his lips before he realized it was out. He seriously questioned his state of mind. To ask such a thing…he must’ve finally gone cuckoo. Worst part of that was the silence he was met with. It was killing him that she wasn’t saying anything.

“…Elle?”

“ _Oh, sorry. I just got work all of a sudden._ ” She replied, “ _I’m so sorry Seven, I have to go right now…we’ll talk later._ ” She hung up.

Not good. Not good at all. Did she really just get work, or was she using that as an excuse to avoid his question? It sounded way too coincidental…

 _‘It’s my fault. Why did I have to open that can of worms in the first place? Stupid.’_ He scolded himself. Having slipped up like that, it probably spooked her out. Damnit. His ability to handle situations like that were obviously very poor.

When his phone started ringing, he half hoped it was Elle again. But this time it was really V. Here it was. Seven sucked in some air and answered the man. “Hey, V...”

* * *

707: MC

707: Jaehee

MC: Are you feeling better?

707: **hehe**

707: **hey hey hey**

707: **to both of you**

Jaehee Kang: 

Jaehee Kang: You sound like usual.

Jaehee Kang: So is it safe to think that you’re fine now?

707: **lol**

MC: What happened to….what happened back there?

707: oh no worries

Jaehee Kang: just what was it about?

707: hehe

707: I was just playing.

Jaehee Kang: **Playing…?**

707: 707…the genius hacker fighting against a gigantic organization..!

707: and he was

707: about to complete his mission

707: secretly

707: **and perfectly….!**

707: 

Jahee Kang: ???

707: He falls for the giant organization’s trap…

707: oooohhhh….

707: he’s met with malicious email

707: **and his past is thus revealed! and…**

707: To be continued…

MC: I think you’re trying to pretend to be ok…

707: **no no no I was just kidding!**

707: 

707: sorry

Jaehee Kang: It didn’t seem like you were joking…

707: i was

707: I was bored so I was playing with my imaginations lol

Jaehee Kang: Is that so…?

MC: V told you to say all this, right?

 _‘Smart girl.’_ Seven thought. MC was, unfortunately, quite sharp. V may not have told him to do that exactly, but he got the message loud and clear. So what if he was pretending to be okay? After their phone conversation, it was best to act like his usual self in the chatroom. Raising alarm and red flags would do nothing but shake down the RFA, and he definitely didn’t want that to happen because of him.

707: No playing detective!

Jahee Kang: I’m worried about you, Luciel…

“Jahee…I’m worried about me too…” His mind was a wreck and his body felt weak. The email shook him to the core, he felt like his world was slowly crumbling around him. His personal safety was the least of his worries. All he could think about was Saeran. Seven hadn’t seen him in years…and for a good reason. In order to keep his little brother safe, he had to separate from him and go work for the intelligence agency. Rika used to send pictures of Saeran, to assure him that he was okay. For the longest time, that was what held him up through tough times.

707: my suspicions are dancing right now

707: sorry lol

Jaehee Kang: You mean you can’t trust what I’m saying…?

MC: You sound a bit uneasy

707: yep

707: I think my mind is not cooperating

707: 

Jaehee Kang: But you just said that you’re fine…

707: did i?

Jaehee Kang: you did;;;

707: did i?

707: well

707: that’s how life is

707: it turns right then it turns left…

Jaehee Kang: Are you sure you’re fine…?

707: **Kyaaaa!!!!**

707: **error code: R6034**

707: **R6034!**

MC: I think you should rest!

Jaehee Kang: Yes…I agree.

Jaehee Kang: You’d better take a break

Jaehee Kang: before you start to act more ridiculously…

707: **Seven’sBrain.exe has stopped working!!!**

Jaehee Kang: …….

707: **I knew it. I need him!!!**

707: no was it her?

707: 

Jaehee Kang: You’re not making any sense again.

707: Language C!

707: I need your help!

707: Please come to the party and fix me!

That about went for as long as he could manage. Shenanigans were his specialty, but even then he felt off his game. Dropping a party guest out of the blue was all he could do to diffuse some of his confusing and contradicting messages.

707: **Heeeeey!**

707: **I just**

707: **thought of something!**

Jaehee Kang: Of what?

707: a guilty pleasure…

707: sweet party

707: inside my mouth…

707: peaches and cream…

MC: Cotton candy?

707: Ooooh so close!!

707: It just got too hot

707: so I thought of ice cream lol

Jaehee Kang: 

Jaehee Kang: I guess getting one wouldn’t be bad.

Jahee Kang: You’d be able to cool down your head.

That was precisely the idea. That, and he hadn’t eaten anything for hours and his stomach growls were just now being noticed. Usually he’d to go for his #1 snack combo of Honey Buddha Chips and PhD Pepper, but…

707: what should I have?

MC: Haagen-Dash 31

707: !!!!

707: How luxurious.

707: That gorgeous taste that melts away in your mouth

707: it’s always a delight to choose what to eat lol

707: u can even find it in convenience stores!

707: ugh now I must get one…

Jaehee Kang: …….

707: **And now –**

707: **I’m off to the market –**

707: **Up and away – !**

He exited after a farewell from MC. Yep. Ice cream is just what he needed. Standing up, he made way to the door, but crossing the hall he passed the kitchen and it made him stop. He stared inside, recalling the time he and Elle ate those pints of ice cream together.

“…” Seven looked down at his phone. Should he? After that awkward phone call, he wasn’t feeling so hot about where they stood with each other…

Seven’s hands glided across the screen, formatting a text message he sent to her before walking out the door.

707: Hey Elle…I know things are kinda awkward rn, but I’m heading out to get ice cream. I think it might help me cool down. Tbh, I haven’t been myself lately and everything in my life is just spinning. Anyway, this is where I’m going to get it **[address]**. Maybe u can join me? Only if u want, of course! Lolol. And if ur not busy of course…you probably are tho, Lolol…lol…ok, bai bai~

There was a convenience store a few blocks from his house, and that’s where he chose to go. It was already dark out, being past seven at night. The skies looked gloomy, with several threatening clouds above. He found they matched his mood all too well.

It took him no more than 10 minutes to get there. Going inside, he went to the back of the store to the frozen isle. Eyes passed from one compartment to another until they stopped at the ice cream section. Seven first thought about getting a popsicle; then he considered a cone; but ultimately he wanted a pint. Just like the one he had with Elle. Looking through the flavors in each row, his eyes lingered on the salted caramel a moment longer, then moved on to the rest. He opened the door and made a reach for the vanilla. Any other day he would argue that that flavor was too boring for him, but he was not himself right now…and maybe that’s all he deserved. A white, bland, boring flavor.

His hand stopped just before grabbing it…. it moved up, and up, to the left, and up again. Moving forward, it grabbed the pint and pulled it out. Salted caramel it was.

 “….” In that moment, Seven thought himself pathetic. The very reason he chose that flavor last minute made his heart ache right now. Head hanging low, he shuffled to the register. A faint rumble from outside was heard as he paid for the treat. It was going to rain soon. Despite that, he forced himself over to the counter seats after grabbing a singles spoon with the cashier. He plopped himself on the stool, took off the wrapper seal on the container, and took the lid off to dip the spoon for a taste.

….was it just him, or did the ice cream taste all-around salty? Where was the caramel sweetness? Did the manufacturer get the mix wrong? No…that wasn’t it. It was probably him, making even ice cream taste sour in his mouth with his dark downer mood. He couldn’t help but sigh as he stared out the window at the street.

 _‘This is me now. Sitting alone and eating her favorite ice cream flavor at a convenience store.’_ Depressed, he shoved more into his mouth, confirming his earlier conclusion of how pathetic he was.

Another rumble sounded outside. Pretty soon it started drizzling. Mechanical movements were made as he continued to eat the cold treat while his mind wandered far away from reality.

_Tap._

Seven looked down when the spoon hit the bottom of the container. He was done? It hadn’t been that long since he started, had it? Checking his phone he found out it had been over half an hour already. Half an hour and no text back from Elle. He should’ve known better. Why would she drop everything she was doing to come see him? That was wishful thinking. Stupid, silly, wishful thinking.

A loud boom from outside made him flinch.

 _‘Great.’_ He must’ve really spaced because the drizzling had turned to full-on pouring rain, and he hadn’t noticed at all. What’s more, he left the house in a rush and without checking the weather; consequently, he didn’t have an umbrella with him. It would take 10 minutes to get back, but his route had little to no covering from the rain.

“Whatever.” He muttered, pulling himself up to dispose of the trash before braving the downpour. He stood just outside the convenience door, where there was a generous canopy above to shield him from the rain. Seven pulled this hoodie over his head. He’d be soaked by the time he got home, but he couldn’t care less right now. Hands tucked in his jean pockets, the young hacker walked out into the pouring street. Seven didn’t even make ten steps out before someone blocked the way.

“??” Looking up, he was honest to god shocked to see Elle standing there. He almost couldn’t believe his eyes. She came?

She held onto a blue umbrella that was now pushed forward to protect him from the downpour as well. Seven also noticed she was panting, seemingly out of breath. Did she run all the way over there? In this weather?

“S-Seven!” Elle puffed out, “Thank god I caught you in time. I-I was afraid you’d be gone already…”

“…” He didn’t know what to say. Words were stuck in his throat. _‘She came…’_

“Listen,” She began, once enough air had filled her lungs. “I’m sorry for how I ended our call. I don’t know why I said that.” The frown on her face reflected a look of guilt. “I lied about getting more work—well no, I mean I _did_ get some, but that was hours before and I just…”

Elle realized she was tripping over herself too much, so she took a deep breath before resuming. “I got nervous when you asked me about the kiss. I…I didn’t know how to answer you so I panicked, and when I saw your text I—“

Seven didn’t let her finish. Stepping forward, he wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. “You came…” He whispered.

His heart hammered against his chest. Seven was so happy. It was all it took to make him forget about his troubles. MC, the hacker, the email, the agency; none of that stuff mattered. Right now, in that moment, all he cared about was having her in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, finally! Here is Chapter 11! Hope you guys enjoyed it :) please let me know how I'm doing. Comments and kudos are very much appreciated! +_+ ❤


	12. Reality check

UThe walk back was done in silence. Elle had decided to accompany him because, well, she was the one with the umbrella, and because it offered a limited amount of protection, they had to walk arm in arm to not get rained on. Seven relished in the fact that he could be so very close to her, even if it was quiet between them.

 _‘I wish I lived farther away now.’_  He couldn’t help the thought when a ten minute walk felt more like one. He really wanted to remain close like that a little longer...

By the time they got to his bunker it was pouring heavy outside, which brought Seven to make a suggestion.

“Hey, um…why don’t you stick around for a bit?” He said, “At least until the rain stops coming down so hard.” He was counting on Vanderwood not showing up unannounced. The older agent was probably still pissed at Seven for tricking and avoiding him.

“I don’t know…” Elle hesitated. “I should probably— **achoo!** ” A brief pause was taken after that unforseen sneeze. “…on second thought, maybe I’ll stay for a bit.” She said, sniffling. “But don’t stay too close. I don’t want you catching what I have.”

Hearing that made him frown. He totally forgot she’s been sick for a few days, and now a wave of guilt started to hit the redhead.

“Ah sorry,” He muttered, rubbing his neck and looking down at the ground. “I shouldn’t have asked you to meet me when you’re sick…I didn’t even check the weather.” Was he really that selfish?

“Nah, don’t be. It was my choice to go out.” Elle reassured, but it didn’t make him feel any less responsible. This was the second time that day he asked her to meet him, and he was definitely, at least subconsciously, aware that she wasn’t in top health. What if she got worse? No matter how dismissive she was, if that were to happen it would be on him.

“I could make us some tea, at least.” He was almost sure there was a box somewhere in the kitchen that he could put to brew. Almost.

“Sure.” She said, taking off her coat and laying it on the arm of the couch. Unable to help himself, he tried not to make obvious that he was watching. Beneath the coat she had on an oversized blue sweater, with denim leggings and gray boots. She looked so cute, his heart skipped a beat.

“U-Uh, I’ll just, um...I’ll get that going.” He about ran to the kitchen. Once there he leaned against the counter, clutching at his chest.

 _‘Why does she do this to me?’_ It was mystifying how much of a hold this girl had on the genius Seven Zero Seven. When she smiled, he flushed. When she laughed, his heart raced. Even a simple kind comment out of her mouth made him feel warm and fuzzy. It was the kind of mushy shit he cringed at and used to tease others. This, however, was totally different. This was real. It had to be.

Taking a moment to calm himself, Seven went in search of that tea. It took a good three minutes to find it stashed away in a dark corner of a cupboard; he was surprised it wasn’t covered in cobwebs yet.

“Peppermint?” He read, “That should do the trick.” He set to work on boiling some water before taking two mugs out. Next, the box was opened and two little tea packets were retrieved to be placed in each.

As he waited for the water to simmer, Seven thought about how upside down his life was right now. First, he never expected to develop feelings for a fellow agent. That was a total curveball thrown at him. Second, the hole MC—hacker intrusion—email chaos; those consecutive events would’ve never _ever_ been anticipated. It was too crazy even for him.

 _‘I need to get my shit together.’_ The earlier phone call with V still bothered him. Okay so _maybe_ he overreacted in the messenger, generating concern in some of the members. Seven could admit he was tactless and too driven by his emotions. But was that the reason V wanted to take the hacker issue off his hands? Did the RFA leader lose trust in him because of his little freak out? He didn’t want the guy thinking he wasn’t stable enough to keep at it. He just needed to process things a little more…

The sound of bubbling brought Seven out of his thoughts. He turned off the stove and carefully picked up the pan of hot water to pour into the mugs. With the rising steam, the peppermint scent instantly wafted into the air. He took a whiff of it before grabbing a small spoon and stirring both mugs to mix them well. Seven didn’t drink tea often, but when he did a spoon or two of sugar was always added. It didn’t make the tea awfully sweet, but it was just enough to add a little quick to the naturally bland taste.

 _'Should I add some to hers too?’_ From what he observed, Elle had a tendency to like sweet stuff. He could ask if she took sugar, but for some reason he wanted to risk being wrong. Adding not one, not two, but three spoonfuls of it, he stirred it up before taking the set back to the living room.

“Here.” Seven offered her the sweeter mug as he sat on the couch, keeping a fair distance between them since she told him not to stay too close. He wouldn’t have cared if he caught something, but he didn’t want to upset her by ignoring her word of caution and overstepping her boundaries—again.

“Thank you.” She pulled the mug to her nose to take in the aroma before a small sip was had. “Mm. Did you add sugar?”

“I did.” He confirmed. “Is that okay? Did I put too much or too little? I should’ve asked if you even wanted it. Also, that’s peppermint. Do you like peppermint? I don’t know, that’s all I had—sorry.” Hearing himself blab, he quickly apologized with a sigh. Why couldn’t he just act normal for once? Elle brandished one of her pretty smiles after he rattled on like an idiot.

“Don’t worry, it’s just perfect.”

 _‘Just perfect_.’ The grip on his mug tightened. His cheeks went on to take a rosy shade and he looked away so she wouldn’t notice. The genius hacker felt strangely victorious about getting her tea formula right, though.

Periodically sipping on tea, another few minutes were marked by silence. There was a question that kept nagging at the back of his mind. Elle said she got nervous when he asked about the kiss. Why was that? Several conclusions were made up, but he had no idea which one could be true.

Ugh. Why did everything have to be so goddamn complicated? He didn’t have the experience to deal with such romantic feelings. It was all so overwhelming, he felt like he was tripping over himself every step of the way.

“Seven?” Elle’s voice cut through the quiet of the room and he looked over.

“Yeah?” Seven saw her lean back against the couch, mug still in hand as she warmed her hands with it. It was only a moment later that she continued.

“Are you okay? You seem...far off.” An observation followed by another sneeze and sniffle. “Ugh…”

“—Wait.” Setting his mug on the coffee table, he headed off. A minute later he reappeared with a tissue box, which was offered to her. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Elle took out a tissue and placed the box on the table. Her nose was lightly blown on it.

He nodded and sat back down, ready to answer her question. “I’m okay, it’s just...I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. Haven’t really been myself ‘cause of that, I guess.” So many things happened in such a short amount of time, he couldn’t wrap his head around it all yet.

“Yeah...I know the feeling.” She said, “This line of work tends to do that to you.”

 _‘It’s not just the agency.’_ Was what he wanted to say, but didn’t. It bothered him that he couldn't be completely honest with Elle. If only he could tell her everything...perhaps he wouldn’t feel so helpless.

“...Elle, about what you said back there…” He trailed off. Seven worried she might reel back again if he touched on the subject, but he couldn’t help himself. “You said you got nervous when I asked about the kiss...why is that?”

“Oh.” Elle’s shoulders seem to tense a little at the reminder. “That’s because…” She frowned. There was something she wanted to say, but was having a hard time getting it out.

“You...felt something?” In trying to help her out, he projected his hopes into it as his heart started racing in anticipation.

“…I did.” The confirmation came but a few seconds later. Sighing, the girl set her cup down on and turned to face him. “When you kissed me out of the blue, I was shocked of course. But not only that...I liked it. A lot.” Her cheeks started going red.

Eyes wide, Seven stared with an even redder face to top her own. Woah, an honest confession! That was the best thing he’s heard in awhile.

“I-I like you..!” His hands slapped against his mouth. Shit. Dread washed over at his outburst—seriously, it’s like he had no control over himself anymore!

“Y-you do?” She stuttered, taken back by the declaration.

“I uh, well I mean, that is—“ He cut himself off. It was no use. He couldn’t take that back. “Yes, I do.” Shy eyes looked away from her. “I’ve liked you for a while now…”

Seven didn’t know what to do or say next, he felt so out of his element. He could make several claims about romance and being an expert about it, but that was all bullshit talk. He had no real experience with it, and this was the first time he’s had strong feelings for someone.

Elle seemed to stare at him for the longest time, and truth be told that made him feel so nervous, it was almost unbearable.

“I’m sorry if this freaks you out. And that kiss I planted on you out of nowhere too, I’m an idiot who should’ve gone about it a dif—“

Seven seized. Not because he chose to, but because a pair of lips were on his. Elle was kissing him. _She_ was kissing _him_. His heartbeat skyrocketed; he felt like it was going to burst out of his chest. The kiss ended as soon as it started, because she suddenly pulled back with a gasp.

“Sorry! I forgot I’m sick.” She recalled, moving away. The hand holding his mug trembled. Sick? Oh right. Seven completely forgot—again.

“...” His mug was set down next to hers. Closing the gap between them again, he held her arms to keep her in place. “I don’t care.” He said, leaning to kiss her again. If it meant being able to do this, she could get him sick anytime.

Elle succumbed at first, but pulled back again. Her hooded brown eyes stared into his golden ones. “This is a bad idea.” Her voice spoke softly, almost like a whisper.

“Yeah, I know.” He said, with an equally soft tone. Seven knew exactly what she meant by that. The agency would forever be hanging over their heads, and their lives, far from safe, would be a constant source of worry. They shouldn’t even try to pursue this. They shouldn’t…

“...” Elle kissed him again, this time deeper. Their mouths glided, feeling each other’s softness as they pressed together….then something wet pushed past his lips. It was her _tongue_. So unprepared, the redhead let out an embarrassing moan. It felt too good, especially when she rubbed it on his.

Seven’s head was fuzzy. The grip on her arm tightened, and something stirred inside of him. Oh god. What was happening? He’s been fretting her rejection since forever, and now this? It was so unexpected...how often did he have such a positive outcome? Lately all there’s ever been was bad luck and failures.

But not this time. This time he felt like he got a major win. The **best** win.

Before he knew it Elle was on top of him. Her hand stroked through his red hair while he moved his hold to her waist. Things were heating up so fast, he could barely keep up. _‘I feel like...like I’m gonna faint.’_ Their kiss-turned-makeout intensified, making the boy breathless. Legs shifted from the clear discomfort rising in between. The hands on her waist moved lower and lower until—

He woke up.

 _‘What? No….no no no, come back sweet dream!’_ Seven groaned. His marvelous, genius, incredibly evil brain had once again played a dirty trick on him. Ugh! He tapped his forehead on the desk then leaned back, puffing out hot hair.

“If only that happened...” He muttered.

But it didn’t. No matter how much he wished it had.

Instead, _this_ happened:

“I’ve liked you for a while now…”

“Seven…” Elle didn’t look like she knew how to respond. Seven clenched his knee, heart beating so fast it felt like it was going to jump out his throat.

“I’m so flattered. Really, I am…I just wish circumstances were different for us…” Oh no. The start of that sentence did not sound good. Not at all.

“You know the risks we take being employed by the agency,” She frowned. “And as harsh as this might sound, we each have reasons why we’re in this line of work to begin with…and whatever those reasons are, we can’t risk jeopardizing ourselves by pursing something we’re not sure will work. We don’t even know each other that well.”

Yep. He knew it. Pouring his feelings out for Elle did nothing to change the brutal reality check he just got from her. The lifestyle they chose would never allow it. They were under contract with an agency that saw relationships of any kind as a liability. Elle wasn’t trying to be hurtful, he knew that. But hearing her say all that...it stung. A lot.

“I know...” He sighed. Seven’s life had that danger factor. In order to protect himself and his brother, he had to dedicate most of his life to this hacking job. The price he had to pay was to be apart from Saeran, living a life of solitude and slave work. He’s come to accept that being a part of the RFA was a miracle in itself, and only because Vanderwood agreed to keep it a secret from the agency.

If Seven really wanted a relationship with Elle, he would have to be totally honest with her—just as she’d have to be with him about herself. Whatever secrets they had would have to be laid out on the table, and the thought alone scared him to death.

She was right. They’ve only known each other about a month; it was way less than the time he’s known the RFA members. Fake or not, the guise they chose to wear on the outside was but a fragment of themselves. Was he willing to expose himself to her? To reveal his troubled past and risk endangering not only himself and his brother, but her as well? And was _she_ willing to do the same for him? Judging by her response, he kind of knew the answer to that already…

“This is my fault. I shouldn’t have gone to meet you o-or given you hope. I shouldn’t have acted on impulse even if I—” Elle stopped herself before she said too much.

Seven stared. Even if she—what? What did she want to say?

“…” Standing up, she grabbed her coat. “I’m sorry, Seven. I’m really sorry.”

“What? But—hey!” The redhead rose up, nearly tripping over himself in trying to stop her from leaving. “Elle wait!”

But he was too late. He didn’t even make it out of the living room when he heard the front door slam shut. That’s how it always ended with them. One way or another, she always left…

Holding his head, Seven leaned against the wall. Damnit. That couldn’t have gone any worse…

 _‘You idiot. Why did you have to fall for a girl so out of your reach?’_ The blame could only fall on him. It should’ve never happened in the first place. Not only did he feel like a total failure in his duties, he managed to push away the one person who could comfort him by being a lovesick fool. Numbly, Seven returned to his station; nothing else to do but drown himself into his work.

* * *

That was three nights ago. Since then, things had taken a turn for worse. Events spiraled; emotions were high; Seven didn’t know how much more he could take. The biggest threat of all was the Prime Minister, who out of the blue decided to make contact with V about an award for the RFA.

Seven didn’t buy that for a second. He knew what kind of man his father was. Minister Choi has gone through great lengths to keep his past mistakes from surfacing into the eye of the public. There was barely any info about his life prior to the elections, and people have gone missing…people who were a potential threat to his career. That could only mean one thing…he was cleaning up house. The man would stop at nothing to avoid a scandal, including wiping out his illegitimate sons from the face of the earth.

Seven felt like there was a ticking time bomb in his head, ready to explode any minute. Saeran’s safety was a constant worry. There were times his paranoia reflected itself in the chatroom, but whenever someone pointed it out he brushed it off. They couldn’t know what was going on; the hacker going berserk was bad enough. He could only trust V with this.

Saejoon Choi, that bastard. He was the reason for everything bad that’s happened to him and his brother. As a youngster, he was the reason Seven couldn’t sleep easy at night. He was the reason Seven went into the shadows as an informant for the agency. He was the reason Seven had to separate himself from Saeran. He was the reason Seven couldn’t have love in his life. He held Seven back from so much…hell, he might even argue he was the reason his mother drank so much and took it out on her kids.

 _‘Elle...you were right….it’s best we stay away from each other.’_ It pained him to think that way, but he had to. Like with Saeran, he wanted her safe. What kind of man would allow the girl he loved to be involved in this mess? It wouldn’t be fair to her.

 _‘Truths can only hold us back…family, friends, lovers…they’re nothing but weaknesses.’_ Vanderwood’s words repeated in his head like a haunting mantra. No matter what, Seven had to keep them safe…whatever it takes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh! What's gonna happen now? Stay tuned! (And plz don't hate me too much ;-;)


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